Minnesota may have a Republican legislature for the first time in 38 years but the state has a Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Governor, Mark Dayton, who is certainly off to a pretty good start. Dayton’s first official act as governor was to order his new Commissioner of Human Services, Cindy Jesson, to implement an early expansion of medical assistance to low-income adults younger than 65. The order, Executive Order #11-01, expanded medical assistance to some 95,000 citizens in the state and will take effect no later than 1 March 2011.
To be eligible for expanded medical assistance, an individual must have income below 75 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Currently that’s US$677 per month for a single-person household.
There’s no asset limit for the new program and no look-back period for asset transfers.
About 58 percent of the cost of the program will be funded by the federal government until 2014, when the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Department of Human Services officials have testified they estimate the state cost of the expanded medical assistance program will be offset over time by savings in various state-funded programs.
Dayton’s second act was to sign Executive Order #11-02, revoking the previous order of former the former governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty, that prohibited state agencies from applying for federal funding to implement the provisions of the healthcare reform legislation.
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