Minnesota Lawyer
Rep. Jim Abeler
House GOP leaders released “phase one” of their proposed budget for health and human services on Monday morning. The proposal calls for spending $10.7 billion during the next biennium, a reduction of $1.6 billion from the projected health and human services budget.
But the blueprint lacked specific details and hasn’t been subjected to fiscal notes scrutinizing the soundness of the proposal.
Rep. Jim Abeler, chair of the Health and Human Services Finance Committee, characterized the budget plan as a starting point for negotiations on what constitutes roughly one third of the state’s budget. If ultimately enacted, the proposal would eliminate nearly a third of Minnesota’s projected $5 billion deficit. “Don’t be naive to think that nothing will change,” said Abeler, R-Anoka. “Things will have to change.”
Central to the GOP plan is seeking a “global waiver” from the federal government on maintenance of effort requirements for the state’s Medicaid program. Republicans are counting on saving $300 million through unspecified changes to the health-care program for poor people. The GOP plan also envisions saving almost $500 million through alterations to programs that serve the elderly, disabled and chronically ill. In addition, nearly $300 million is cut from payments to the state’s health maintenance organizations.
“We’re not slashing and burning here,” said Rep. Steve Gottwalt, chair of the Health and Human Services Reform Committee, noting that spending will go up by $500 million from the current biennium. “We are in fact growing health care funding.”
Democrats harshly criticized the plan for lacking specific details, most notably the absence of fiscal notes. “We know it’s a bad bill,” said Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood. “We know it’s going to hurt people. But most of all, we know it’s phony.”
The Health and Human Services Finance Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on the bill over the next two days, with public testimony slated for Wednesday. The committee’s expected to vote on the bill the following day. According to Abeler, it could be on the House floor within two weeks.
“We are going to vote on this bill on Thursday and we will not know what it costs,” said Rep. Thomas Huntley, DFL-Duluth, the ranking minority member on the Health and Human Services Finance Committee. “I’ve never seen that in my 19 years.”
The Senate is yet to unveil its health and human services budget proposal.
