Health Care
May 13, 2011
Doug Grow did his best on Wednesday to add some spice to an otherwise bland, but very important policy debate taking place at the Legislature. The headline to his article reads: "Surprise amendment stuns Senate during debate over health care costs."
May 2, 2011
Here’s a guaranteed way of saving almost real money on health care costs. If a provider, such as a lab, winds up owing a patient under two cents, it should refrain from sending him a check for that amount, because if I had to guess, the stamp alone costs at least that much.
Dec 20, 2010
Gov.-elect Mark Dayton has announced that he will expand the state's federally funded Medicaid program to poor adults without children as soon as Jan. 3.
Sep 15, 2010
In 2005, the Onion reported this headline: "State of Minnesota Too Polite To Ask For Federal Funding." Gov. Tim Pawlenty is quoted in the article as saying, "Oh, we wouldn't want to bother the U.S. government -- they've got more than enough on their plate as it is."
May 12, 2010
The House and Senate conferees on the Health and Human Services (HHS) omnibus supplemental budget bill finished their work late last night. The conferees managed to hit their budget targets and delivered a Conference Report that reduces the general fund deficit by $114 million in the current biennium and by $155 million in the next biennium. Unfortunately, there are two serious problems with this bill.
Mar 2, 2010
As most expected, Democrats and Republicans are no closer to a compromise than they were before the White House's much anticipated health-care summit. Unfortunately, that means that America is no closer to getting a health-care bill that controls the rising cost of health care. The reality, as well as the irony, is that a more ideal health-care proposal — one that takes an honest shot at containing costs — is also a more bipartisanship proposal.
Feb 15, 2010
Minnesota cannot rely on the federal government to take responsibility for our health care system. Therefore, Minnesota policymakers should continue efforts to make health care more accessible and affordable through Medicaid and insurance market reforms.
Jan 21, 2010
A substantial effort is under way to save Minnesota's General Assistance Medical Care program (GAMC) from expiring on March 1. As someone who wholly supports the reinstatement of GAMC, I'm increasingly worried this effort might fail because, to date, none of the discussions at the Capitol adequately consider the state's broader budget mess — the overriding reason why GAMC is set to end in the first place.
Oct 1, 2009
A health insurance exchange is often reported as one of the few key congressional health care proposals with bipartisan support. Whatever bipartisan support people perceive is illusory. The fact is, conservatives and liberals support very different versions of an exchange
Sep 8, 2009
In today’s health care discussions, the Mayo Clinic is regularly held out as a high value health care provider that delivers high quality at a low cost. There is indeed a strong body of research from Dartmouth Medical School that shows Medicare patients at the Mayo Clinic consistently cost far less and experience superior outcomes when compared to similar patients at clinics across the country. However, when it comes to understanding value—the intersection between cost and quality—the Dartmouth research is limited by the fact that it covers only Medicare patients.