A sea of white coats at the base of the Capitol Rotunda. Photo by Scott Smith

MINNEAPOLIS, March 6, 2007—A group of more than 100 attended Thursday's Day at the Capitol event in St. Paul.

Physicians arrived from from all over the state to hear briefings from state senators and representatives who are leaders on health care, and to hear strategy
briefings from the MMA. Attendance in all reached 124, higher than any previous year.

President-elect George Schoephoerster, M.D., welcomed the group, which was expanded this year to include physician assistant students from Augsburg University in Minneapolis.

"The reason we are here today is to have better relationships with our legislators," he told the group. "One thing you will notice when you talk to them is that they are very interested in meeting with you."

Dave Renner, director of legislative affairs for the MMA, outlined the key issues for the MMA this year at the Capitol. "Number one is health care reform, building on last year's success with the Physicians' Plan for a Healthy Minnesota," he said.

"Number two is who should pay for interpreter services, which we believe should be the insurer and not the physician," Renner told the crowd. "And number three is the issue of the Health Care Access Fund, and how that money is used."

Renner pointed out that Day at the Capitol is just one way for physicians to meet legislators. The MMA also organizes Capitol Rounds, in which the MMA
arranges for visits for individual physicians with their respective legislators.

The keynote speaker for the event was Minnesota Health Commissioner Sanne Magnan, M.D., herself a physician and a member of the MMA. Magnan was coming off an important decision, having determined the day before that the so-called "theater nights" being held at state taverns to circumvent the Freedom to Breathe Act were a violation of the law. Physicians roundly applauded her decision to enforce the act.

"It is of the utmost importance that your voice be heard" in the debate underway," Magnan told the physicians. "You must never underestimate the power of your voice."

Following Magnan to the podium were three legislators who will have great leverage on the health care debate int he year ahead:

• Sen. Ann Lynch, D-Rochester, a first-term Senator from Rochester who promised that health care would be a top issue in the session.
• Rep. Tom Huntley, D-Duluth, a veteran of the House and a leader in the fight last year to pass the Freedom to Breathe Act, and legislative point-man in the health care reform debate.
• Rep. Matt Dean, second-term Republican representative from Dellwood and Stillwater, and a member of the Health Care Finance Committee, who invited physicians to let legislators' "phones ring off the hooks."

Attending physicians and others were excited by their own numbers and by the opportunity to meet lawmakers. Cindy Firkins Smith, M.D., who came down from Fergus Falls, said that she had "a better chance to improve health care in the state of Minesota by being here than by seeing patients in her office."

And Stacey Patterson, physician assistant student at Augsburg University, said that Day at the Capitol was a "wonderful opportunity for a student to see firsthand how health care issues are debated and to speak up personally and be represented."