MINNEAPOLIS, February 13, 2008—An editorial in the Star Tribune Monday urged lawmakers to act this legislative session to effect changes that lead to affordable health care for all Minnesotans.

"A rare opportunity for landmark change has come," the editorial said. "Considerable accord exists among DFLers, Republicans and a long list of stakeholders for a set of proposals that could eventually revolutionize the way medical care is provided in this state."

The editorial envisioned a system that reward prevention today, rather than waiting for people to become sick tomorrow.

It cited an example used by DFL state representative and retired University of Minnesota-Duluth medical school professor Rep. Tom Huntley. In Huntley's example, St. Marys Duluth Clinic monitored 29 heart patients to detect trouble before patients required hospitalization. The heart patients cost 48 percent less during the six months of the experiment, compared with the previous six months. A tiny fraction had to go to the hospital.

But there was a catch: the existing reimbursement system won't pay for this kind of preventive care.

The editorial urged legislators to act on proposed changes that make possible this kind of money-saving, life-extending care. 

The recommendations put forward by the commission, which was chaired by Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. Thomas Huntley, DFL-Duluth, are quite similar to the MMA’s own reform vision released in 2005, “Physicians’ Plan for a Healthy Minnesota.”

The newspaper lamented Gov. Pawlenty's rejection of one recommendation of the "transformational health care task force" he appointed last year -- the imposition of a health impact fee on tobacco products.

It also criticized the rejection by the governor and by Republicans in the House of the idea of a mandate that all citizens must have health insurance.

"The problem is that the freedom to be uninsured often results in expensive, uncompensated emergency room care, paid for by insured people via higher premiums. A serious effort to control health costs must include virtually universal insurance coverage," the editorial concluded.

Star Tribune editorial