State Representative David Bly, District 25B

As you might imagine there is lots of interest in the special election over in House Seat 28B, held for the last 30 years by Rep. Sviggum.  Eleven candidates are vying for the seat.  That’s five Republicans and six Democrats.  

I was struck by the tone expressed by the two Leaders in the House.

The following quotes regarding the special election candidates appeared in the Rochester paper:
 

"They all seemed very focused on education and the well-being of their communities, and that seems to be a really good fit with the House DFL caucus right now," Anderson Kelliher said.
 
"If you elect a Democrat, you're just basically contributing to an already sloppy DFL majority that's slanted toward the inner city. It's another vote for Minneapolis leaders," Seifert said.

Minority leader Seifert also mentioned the Republican interest in Healthcare reform, which I will grant him is one of the top issues I hear about.  In light of the attention Michael Moore’s movie ‘Sicko’ is getting it is not hard to understand that this is an issue that voters are very concerned about.  But the Republican solutions are very limited and don’t really get at bringing down costs or increasing access to healthcare.  

Seems everyone is talking about the magnitude of the problem.  Here is Amy Klobuchar quoted yesterday in the Bemidji Pioneer :

“I personally think that the focus should be on health care costs and how we can make sure we have quality health care but reduce some of the paper-pushing and all the administrative costs,” And that includes providing health coverage to all citizens, especially those in rural areas who also have problems accessing health care.

“It’s just getting harder and harder for people to get by,” she said, with health care premiums up 60 percent in six years.

Paul Krugman dedicated his column this morning to the major roadblocks to solving the problem:

Meanwhile, every available indicator says that in terms of quality, access to needed care and health outcomes, the U.S. health care system does worse, not better, than other advanced countries. …
    All of which raises the question Mr. Moore asks at the beginning of “Sicko”: who are we?

    “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.” So declared F.D.R. in 1937, in words that apply perfectly to health care today. This isn’t one of those cases where we face painful tradeoffs — here, doing the right thing is also cost-efficient. Universal health care would save thousands of American lives each year, while actually saving money.

    So this is a test. The only things standing in the way of universal health care are the fear-mongering and influence-buying of interest groups. If we can’t overcome those forces here, there’s not much hope for America’s future.

I believe we will see in this next session the debate of a single-payer Bill, two have already been introduced though they have not been heard in committee.  SF 460 and HF2522 are both described as Single payer bills but the y do have there differences and I am sure they will change again as time goes on.If you have thoughts about healthcare I would like to hear what’s on your mind please e-mail me with your ideas.  (rep.david.bly@house.mn)Here is a summary of what was passed in the last session related to Health and Human Services:

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
- Comprehensive statewide health care reform: Funding for several initiatives, such as payment reform, electronic medical records, and improved reporting of uncompensated care, which will help lower health care costs for the 93 percent of Minnesotans who currently have insurance.
- Expanded health care access: Reduced or eliminated barriers to coverage for children, which will result in approximately 37,000 children and 20,000 adults receiving health care.  
- Nursing homes: A 2 percent rate increase for long-term care facilities in both fiscal years 2008 and 2009.  Phased-in rebasing of rates.  Rebasing is particularly important for nursing facilities located in rural areas currently experiencing financial hardship.
- Targeted case management: $33 million in one-time money to offset federal cuts to "Target Case Management" services.
- Homeless/runaway youth: $1 million for efforts to help homeless and runaway youth.
- Family homelessness prevention:  $7.5 million in new funding for flexible grants to counties and nonprofit organizations to help families or youth who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness.
- Mental health: The MA, GAMC, and MinnesotaCare benefit set is expanded to include more comprehensive mental health services.
- Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act: Established a universal newborn hearing screening program, which will help to promote health child development.
- Critical access dental care:  Increased funding for critical access dental providers.  
- Continuing care for older Minnesotans: The Senior Nutrition Program; Senior Companion Program; Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP); and Foster Grandparent program provided increased resources to continue their vital missions.   The Senior Nutrition Program (Senior Dining and Meals on Wheels) provides nutritionally balanced meals and social contact for more than 88,000 older adults.
- Emergency contraception: Hospitals required to provide victims of sexual assault medically and factually accurate information regarding emergency contraception, and the emergency contraception itself upon the victim's request.
- Freedom to Breath Act: Effective October 1, 2007 smoking is banned in indoor places of employment including bars, restaurants, and in public transportation.
- Body piercing: Parental consent required for minors to get a body piercing other than pierced ears.
- School employee health insurance pool: Created a statewide health insurance pool for all school district employees.  
- MCHA: Lifetime benefit increased to $5,000,000 to help people with chronic debilitating health problems.
- Health care visitation: Upon admission to a health care facility, a patient must be given the opportunity to designate a person who is not related who will have the status of the patient's next of kin with respect to visitation and making health care decisions.
- Physical therapy: No modifications to existing law governing direct access to physical therapists.
- Radon control: The Department of Labor and Industry directed to adopt rules for radon control as part of the State Building Code for all new residential buildings.  Exposure to elevated levels of radon can cause health problems in humans.