Once again, the most talked about subject for every campaign this election cycle is health care, as it should be.  Sound bites often make catchy ads, but rarely solve problems.

Healthcare costs have been rising for a number of years, but really spiked with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), established in Minnesota as MNSure. Nearly 225,000 more Minnesotans are currently on Medical Assistance (Medicaid) under Obamacare. Meanwhile, the highly-regarded Minnesota health plan for those with pre-existing conditions (MCHA) has been eliminated. Those individuals are still covered, but their cost of care is now subsidized by healthy individuals.

Our providers (doctors, clinics, and hospitals) are reimbursed for their services at drastically different rates depending on the type of insurance used.  Medical Assistance, which is a joint federal-state program for the poor, pays providers significantly less than the actual cost they incur to provide care.  Medicare, which is the federal health coverage program for those 65 and over, also pays providers less than their cost of service, but more than Medical Assistance.

Therefore, privately insured patients are expected to carry the load for those using government health care.  That’s a price we are willing to pay to make sure the poor and elderly have quality care, but expanding MinnesotaCare eligibility beyond low-income residents will destabilize our insurance markets and cause people to lose their current coverage.

We constantly hear the term single-payer health plan used in this election cycle.  A government run single-payer plan would be the end of our health care system as we know it in Minnesota.  It has been said that the Mayo Clinic, our crown jewel of healthcare, would cease to exist as we know it under the system the Democrats are proposing.

We all want access to high-quality, affordable healthcare.  When we are sick or hurt, we want to see our doctor at our local hospital or local clinic, and we hope to be feeling better real soon. Fortunately, the vast majority of us are happy with the quality of our health care system, and new Republican reforms are starting to lower costs. If a single-payer state-run system was implemented with a lower reimbursement rate, we would lose the quality health care we currently enjoy today.

A number of very good reforms have been implemented in the past two years, which are helping a lot, but is the job done?  Absolutely not!  Much more must be done to return health care to the point of being affordable.

I do expect that we will implement significant reforms again this session as we strive for high quality, affordable health care for all of our citizens.  Please remember that sound bites rarely solve problems.