The Minnesota Senate has passed a “reinsurance” bill that would have the state pick up care costs for seriously-ill Minnesotans in an effort to hold down everyone else’s health insurance premiums. Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka says, “This was a step to preserve the market, and it was a costly step that I wish we didn’t have to make, and the path to it is murky.” Saint Paul Park Democrat Dan Schoen told Republicans, if roles were reversed “and the Democrats were handing out over half a billion in taxpayer money to insurance companies, you’d be going back to your districts and… saying, it’s the typical liberal malady of just throwing money at a problem.” Republican Leader Gazelka responds insurance companies weren’t the ones that promised people could keep their doctor or that rates would go down 25-hundred dollars per family.