Minnesota currently sends roughly $3 billion each year to the state's health maintenance organizations to provide coverage for more than 500,000 of the state's poorest residents. Critics of the system charge that there is little transparency or accountability in how the dollars are spent. Legislators from both sides of the aisle have introduced proposals to significantly alter the system.

Sen. John Marty has introduced legislation that would prohibit the state from enrolling any more Medicaid recipients into managed-care programs after March 1. Instead the Department of Human Services would be required to cover the individuals directly.