More than 100 citizens overflowed the Minnesota Senate’s Health, Housing, and Family Security committee hearing to support Senator John Marty‘s (D-Roseville) Minnesota Health Plan. The Minnesota Health Plan is a single-payer healthcare system that would provide universal coverage across the state with sliding-scale premiums based on ability to pay.
Under the plan which is the first of its kind in the United States, citizens would pay insurance premiums to an independent health care board which would be monitored by the state government. The board would pay health care providers directly.
Marty’s proposed legislation passed the Health, Housing, and Family Security committee on a voice vote after citizen testimonials, most in favor of the bill. Opposition, according to Andy Birkey’s account in the Minnesota Monitor, came from members of the insurance industry. Proponents of the plan say it would reduce health care costs by 20 percent through administrative efficiencies while ending employer-tied insurance and lowering the cost of insurance for Minnesota families.
The plan passes next to the Minnesota Senate’s Commerce and Consumer Protection committee.
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