State Expansions: Minnesota

During the 2008 legislative session, lawmakers worked to draft a comprehensive health reform law that represented the recommendations made by the Legislative Committee on Health Care Access and the Health Care Transformation Task Force. The recommendations, which were submitted to the governor and the legislature in February 2008, called for reforms to make health care more affordable and ensure that all Minnesotans have health coverage by 2011.

The legislature passed a compromise bill that would have subsidized coverage for Minnesotans earning incomes below 400 percent of the federal poverty level (about $84,800 for a family of four), and it would have made significant reforms to the state's health care payment systems. However, Governor Pawlenty vetoed the bill in May 2008. Determined lawmakers came back together to modify their proposals and enacted SF 3780. Governor Pawlenty signed SF 3780, which includes provisions to do the following:

• Expand MinnesotaCare to non-parents earning incomes below 250 percent of poverty;
• Reduce MinnesotaCare premiums;
• Provide funding and support to public health programs to reduce smoking and obesity;
• Commission a study on the affordability of health coverage for Minnesotans at different income levels; and
• Require e-prescribing, encourage medical homes, create work groups to explore provider payment reform, and implement other cost-containment strategies.

The moderate success of this session builds on incremental reforms enacted during 2007, which extended health coverage to 30,000 kids and 20,000 adults in Minnesota. Last session, the state accomplished the following: increased the MinnesotaCare childless adult income eligibility level from 175 percent of poverty to 215 percent of poverty; increased public awareness of state health programs, provided assistance with program applications, and increased the number of application sites; established an "incentive" program that provides any organization with a $20 bonus for each individual it helps successfully enroll in MinnesotaCare, medical assistance, or general assistance; and changed the MinnesotaCare recertification requirement from every six months to every 12 months.

Minnesota Expansion Resources

• Final Report: Recommendations Submitted to the Minnesota Legislature by the Legislative Commission on Health Care Access (February 2008)
• Health Care Transformation Task Force Recommendations Submitted to Governor Pawlenty and the Minnesota Legislature (January 2008)

For general resources on state expansions, see Other Resources.

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