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Republicans are lying, Rep. Liebling says

Minnesota Republicans in the Legislature are once again trying to take from the poor and give to the rich. Listen to this from a press release from Representative John Poston earlier in the week. 

“Rep. John Poston (R-Lake Shore) joined fellow Minnesota House Republicans at a press conference Tuesday urging the new DFL House Majority and Governor Walz not to raise health care costs on Minnesotans by restoring the sick tax—a 2 percent tax levied on most patient services in Minnesota, including things like baby deliveries, chemotherapy treatments, routine doctor visits, emergency room visits, and more.”

“Proposing a $600 million tax increase on health care services when the state has a $1.5 billion surplus is irresponsible and unfair to Minnesota families,” said Rep. Poston.

The tax Poston is talking about is commonly known as the provider tax. It’s called a provider tax because it’s paid by health care providers and not patients. It has been in place for over two decades.

“This tax has been in effect for about 25 years,” writes Representative Tina Liebling, a DFL Representative from Rochester.  “It is an existing tax that the Republicans want to eliminate. If it stays, how is that an increase?  Some may be disappointed that they don't get a decrease, but it is not an increase.”

So, folks, there’s no $600 million tax increase on health care services and John Poston and his colleagues know it.

“They are lying,” Liebling says.

The provider tax funds most of Minnesota’s Health Care Access Fund. This fund pays the bills for MinnesotaCare. That means it is the primary funder for medical insurance for about 100,000 low income Minnesotans. 

“The provider tax was a policy solution to advance an idea nearly everyone can agree is a good one: health insurance should be affordable for everybody,” wrote Ben Horowitz, of the Minnesota Budget Project, in 2016 https://tinyurl.com/y92ajstw.

But the provider tax sunsets in 2020 unless the Legislature takes action. After nearly a quarter century, the Republicans want to let the provider tax go away. That will slash funding for MinnesotaCare. That will leave thousands of Minnesotans uninsured or under-insured. 

So John Poston wants to eliminate a small tax on hospitals and doctors - one that they’ve been paying for decades - by pretty much gutting MinnesotaCare. That’s sick. Who elected these people?


Tim
Central Minnesota Political


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