Health Care Transparency

Last week, we held a press conference revealing several key pieces of legislation today focused on making prices for common health care services clear and transparent to the average consumer, allowing you to avoid hidden costs, and save money on your care and prescription drugs. The proposals are the latest step in our caucus’s continued effort to lower your health care costs.

The proposed legislation includes:

• S.F. 3033– Requires health care providers to post transparent prices for their twenty-five most commonly billed services and procedures in the reception area of the clinic and on their website.
• S.F. 3480 – Requires health care providers and health insurance plans to provide a good faith estimate of the total health care costs a patient will be required to pay for a visit.
• S.F. 2746 – Requires health care providers to disclose hidden facility fees a patient might be required to pay for services or procedures.
• S.F. 2836– Saves consumers money on prescription drugs by allowing pharmacists to inform consumers when the cash cost of a prescription is less than the insured cost.

Mental Health Reform

Last week, our caucus also announced several new initiatives emphasizing our focus on caring for people unveiling four bills designed to improve Minnesotans’ mental health. The mental health proposals ranged from funding for more mental health facilities and services, to supportive housing, to school-based mental health programs, and lastly counseling support resources for farm families.

• S.F. 2161 – Grants for projects to design, construct, and equip crisis centers to care for people with mental illness or substance use disorders, including individuals who are under arrest or subject to arrest, or in immediate need of crisis services.
• S.F. 2159 – Housing infrastructure bonds to create permanent supportive housing for those who need a longer stay or extended monitoring to get back on their feet.
• S.F. 3679 – Grants to support students’ mental health needs via telemedicine.
• S.F. 2555 -Funding for mental health counseling support for farm families and business operators.
• Various bills – Funding for safe schools that can be used for school counselors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and alcohol and chemical dependency counselors.

The mental health crisis affects us all, whether it’s you directly, someone in your family, or friend or neighbor in the community. It’s time we bring more attention to the issue and make sure we have the resources available to handle these concerns.

Tax Reconciliation

The Senate continues to work on a tax reconciliation bill to deal with the sweeping federal tax changes enacted by Congress this past December. With the removal of many reductions and change to the overall structure of taxes, it’s been has been a turbulent few months to make predictions of the impact of the legislation on our state. As Minnesota’s tax picture becomes more clear, Senate Republicans are working to develop a new tax plan that keeps as Minnesotans as possible from receiving any form of tax increase. At the same time, we’re also committed to protecting last year’s sweeping tax reforms that helped our seniors, families, students and small businesses.

In contrast to our approach, the Governor has announced his tax plan and supplement budget touting it as a “revenue-neutral” plan. As more details on that proposal have emerged, we’ve seen that that is just not true. This week, The Department of Revenue released a report examining the Governor’s approach, including his supplemental budget proposal, and found that it would result in increased taxes on Minnesotans across the board, with households making less than $32,000 being hit hardest.

That plan is fundamentally unfair, and simply wrong for the people of Minnesota and Senate Republicans will not allow it to go through. Stay tuned early next week when we plan to release our proposal that will help far more Minnesotans.