Minnesota Lawyer
Rep. Tom Huntley (File photo: P. Bartz-Gallagher)
The House is expected to take up General Assistance Medical Care legislation when it convenes this afternoon. Legislators from both parties reached an agreement with Gov. Tim Pawlenty earlier this month to salvage the program, which provides medical coverage for poor, single adults. The Senate subsequently passed the legislation with broad bipartisan support.
But the House has not yet voted on the matter. And some Democrats have suggested in recent days that the deal should be scuttled owing to the passage of the federal health care bill.
“It has become clear that the GAMC ‘compromise’ will not work,” said Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, chair of the House’s Health Care and Human Services Policy and Oversight Committee, in a statement issued yesterday. “We’ve heard that from hospitals and other providers from all across the state. We have heard that from advocates for the clients currently served under GAMC. We should not enact bad public policy simply because of a ‘deal’ reached behind closed doors.”
Pawlenty sent a letter to DFL leaders yesterday urging quick approval of the GAMC agreement, pointing out that the current iteration of the program is set to expire on April 1. He subsequently huddled with key legislators twice in the last 24 hours. The upshot of those negotiations: The House looks likely to pass the GAMC bill.
“The problem is that the program is going to end on April 1st if we don’t do anything,” says Rep. Thomas Huntley, DFL-Duluth, who chairs the House’s Health Care and Human Services Finance Division. “I would call it a lights-on bill.”
But even if the House enacts the GAMC legislation, that doesn’t mean that the issue is dead. Huntley and other legislators think that the agreement is deeply flawed — primarily owing to cuts in reimbursement rates for hospitals — and believe the federal legislation offers an out. They want to move GAMC subscribers into Medicaid. The federal government would initially pick up half the bill for the coverage, and then take over all financial commitments starting in 2014.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services initially indicated that it couldn’t possibly transition the individuals covered by GAMC into medical assistance before the end of the year. But Huntley says the agency is now stating that it can make the change in six months. He hopes to press for a quicker transition.
