MINNEAPOLIS, February 4, 2009 - MMA leaders testified this week against including a 50 percent reimbursement cut to the General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) program, as part of a plan to extend the program.

On the first day of the session, Thursday, Feb. 4., MMA President Benjamin Whitten, M.D., testified before the House Health and Human Services Policy and Oversight Committee. The day before MMA Board of Trustees Chair David Thorson, M.D., testified at a joint Senate hearing.

Both testified that the MMA supports saving the GAMC program but that physicians could not support either the DFL’s or Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposals. The governor’s plan involves shifting GAMC enrollees to MinnesotaCare when GAMC ends April 1.

 Video: MMA Board Chair Dave Thorson, M.D., about his testimony.

"Governor Pawlenty’s approach is to shift GAMC enrollees to MinnesotaCare . . . achieves savings by assuming individuals will not get care because many of the enrollees will be unable to pay the MinnesotaCare monthly premium and manage the required application processes,” Thorson said during his testimony.

The shift would also result in the Health Care Access Fund going broke next year.

The DFL plan would cut payments to medical clinics that treat GAMC enrollees by 50 percent. Minnesota already has the 45th lowest rates in the country.

The MMA argues that clinics are already losing money on treating patients in the GAMC, Medical Assistance, and MinnesotaCare programs because of the low reimbursement rates they receive.

Those rates are based on charges from 1989 and are less than half of what private insurers pay for the same services and much less than public programs in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin pay for an office visit. In addition, clinics are having to deal with last year’s 6.5 percent rate cut for non-primary care services. As an alternative to these plans, the MMA’s Board of Trustees voted at its January meeting to support broad-based tax increases to fund state-run health care programs.

The MMA has previously called for higher tobacco and alcohol taxes. The MMA Board approved an increase in either health-related taxes or broad-based taxes, such as the income tax or the sales tax, in order to fund health care programs.

“We must ensure continued coverage for this population, but we cannot solve it by passing the cuts onto the clinics and hospitals that all of us rely on to keep us healthy and treat us when we are ill. Although efforts to raise revenue can be politically unpopular, the MMA supports a balanced approach to solving our fiscal problems, including raising broad-based taxes if needed. Continuing to try to cut our way out of this problem will only cause greater problems down the road,” Thorson testified.