| Issue | MMA Stance | Outcome |
| Using Health Care Access Funds to balance the budget | Opposed | Health Care Access Funds were not used to balance the budget despite Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposal to transfer all provider tax revenues to the state’s general fund. |
| Reducing physician reimbursement rates | Opposed | Payments to specialty physicians were cut by 5 percent; payments to primary care physicians remain unchanged. |
| Continuing health care reform | Supported | $47 million dedicated to tobacco and obesity prevention as part of health care reform was appropriated in the final budget. But it could be unallotted by the governor. |
| Requiring booster seats | Supported | Starting in July, children younger than 8 years and shorter than 4 feet 9 inches must use a child passenger restraint device. |
| Making failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense | Supported | A law making failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense passed after years of failed attempts; it is expected to save about 30 lives a year. |
| Protecting the newborn screening program | Supported | A bill to clarify the law with regards to privacy issues stalled during the final days of the session. Current law allows the program to continue. |
| Increasing the provider tax | Opposed | The provider tax was not increased this session, despite attempts to increase it 1 percentage point. |
| Requiring doctors to do dental caries prevention | Opposed | A bill that mandated all primary care providers to perform a cursory oral exam, complete a risk assessment for caries, and apply fluoride varnish for low-income patients over the age of 1 was defeated. The MMA supports dental health but objected to the mandate. |
| Appealing cause of death | Opposed | A bill that would have allowed a determination of death by a physician to be challenged in court failed. |
| Handling patients | Supported | A bill that requires clinics to have a plan for the safe handling of patients passed. This bill was preferable to an earlier measure that would have required clinics to have patient lifts. |
| Disclosing insurer payments | Supported | A proposal that requires health plans that receive capitation payments from the state to cover enrollees to report payments they make to providers passed. |
| Raising the alcohol tax | Supported | A 5-cent-a-drink increase was included in a DFL tax bill but was vetoed. The MMA supported a 10-cent a drink increase. |
| Establishing birthing centers | Opposed | A proposal that would have licensed nonhospital-based birthing centers and encouraged women on public programs to deliver at those centers failed. |
| Changing physician assistant regulations | Supported | The number of physician assistants a physician can supervise was increased from two to five. |