Physicians outraged by budget balancing plan
MINNEAPOLIS, March 13, 2008 - About 200 physicians emailed lawmakers this week to tell them not to balance the budget by taxing the sick and breaking previous promises.
In addition, MMA President-elect George Schoephoerster, M.D., told Senators on the Health and Human Services Budget Division Thursday that they should use the money in the Health Care Access Fund to cover the uninsured, instead of stealing it to balance the budget. Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposal to snatch about $300 million from the Health Care Access Fund (HCAF) to help cover the $935 million deficit the state is facing has left many physicians feeling betrayed.
Pawlenty released his plan last week and chose health and human services as his primary target. Though these services comprise about one-third of state spending, they account for about 56 percent of the cuts and funds transfers Pawlenty has proposed. Though Pawlenty expressed regret last year about raiding the Health Care Access Fund, he has chosen to do it again. During his time in office, Pawlenty and lawmakers have drained nearly half-a-billion dollars from the fund to balance the budget.
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President-elect George Schoephoerster, M.D., testifying against a $300 million raid on the Health Care Access Fund. |
Pawlenty also wants to pass an $88 million tax break, at the same time that he has proposed robbing the HCAF. Roberta Zimmerman, M.D., of Grand Rapids, told his lawmakers in an e-mail sent in response to an MMA Action Alert Wednesday that “the latest proposal boggles the mind.”
Zimmerman can’t believe the government wants to balance the budget with a special tax on health care providers and the sick. Instead, he said, the money in the HCAF should be used for its intended purpose of covering the unisured. “Access to health care must be expanded. This requires money, and emptying the Health Care Access Fund to balance the budget will eliminate any chance of expanding access.”
Melissa King-Biggs, M.D., of Minneapolis, said she’s even willing to pay the provider tax to help the uninsured, but she strongly opposes the theft of these funds for other uses. “If you need funds for the general fund, this should be a general tax, NOT a tax on health care providers only,” King-Biggs said.
Schoephoerster, representing the MMA, told the Senate finance committee that stealing from the health care access fund breaks a promise made to providers and undermines the state’s ability to increase health care access and enact health care reform.
“Not surprisingly, the physicians of Minnesota are outraged,” he said. “This proposal is an affront to all the hard working professionals in the state and their patients on whose backs the costs are ultimately born.”
Other high-profile testimony came from former Gov. Arne Carlson, who has been outspoken in recent weeks on the need for health care reform. Carlson appeared on behalf of a program to help children suffering from the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome. He criticized fellow Republican Pawlenty for being "shortsighted."
"Whenever there's a budget crisis, it's the prevention side that gets cut," Carlson said. He called on lawmakers to "take a sensible approach" to developing a long-term budget. This nonsense of Band-Aids and prayer does not work," he said.