With fervor, House passes $9.9 billion health bill

04/22/2007

Abortion funding was among the topics during a long and lively debate over a bill that also includes significant new funding for uninsured children.


By Norman Draper and Mark Brunswick,
Star Tribune
Last update: April 21, 2007


Despite protracted debate on such issues as abortion and welfare, the Minnesota House passed a sweeping health and human services bill early today. The $9.9 billion bill would provide $396 million in new funding for such programs as health insurance for uninsured children, cost-of-living increases in state payments for nursing homes, and measures meant to streamline red tape in medical billing and contain costs.
The bill also would establish a task force to study how to provide universal health care for all Minnesotans by 2010.

The House approved the measure on an 86-45 vote.

"This bill is concerned with the uninsured 7 percent of Minnesotans," said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis. "But it's equally concerned about the value the 93 percent who are insured are getting. And it sets the path for comprehensive health care."

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