Minnesota House Republicans warn Democrats will increase the cost of health care if they succeed in continuing a tax on doctors and hospitals — the “medical provider tax” — that’s set to expire at year’s end. Rochester Democrat Tina Liebling fires back the tax helps pay for Minnesota’s Medicaid program (Medical Assistance). “On the federal level, we watched what happens when Republicans are in control of health care,” Liebling says. “Their best plan was to kick 43 million Americans off of health care.”
Some Democrats, including Governor Tim Walz, say their ultimate goal is a single-payer health care system in Minnesota. But House Republican Leader Kurt Daudt, “Other states have tried single-payer. They’ve tried to move in that direction. They got close enough to see what the real costs were for the people in their states, and they backed right out of it.”