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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Nonprofits Continue Push for Healthier Minnesota

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Thursday, February 4, 2016   

ST. PAUL, Minn. – With lawmakers set to consider the future of Minnesota's public health care programs, a nonprofit group is backing several proposals to expand access for low-income residents.

Late last month, Gov. Mark Dayton's Health Care Finance Task Force laid out dozens of recommendations on where the state should go.

Ben Horowitz, a policy advocate for the Minnesota Budget Project, is urging lawmakers to pay particular attention to several ideas.

These include restoring eligibility for MinnesotaCare for people who make less than $33,000 a year.

"That was actually the case for most adults until Jan. 1, 2014,” he points out. “And it makes a lot of sense, because families in that income range still struggle to make ends meet."

Some health care industry critics, however, argue that expanding public coverage could shift some costs onto the private insurance market.

The renewed push for expanding MinnesotaCare comes as some House Republicans are calling for a review of the program due to possible over-payments to some people who didn't qualify.

But Democrats say the results of new checks on MinnesotaCare, which were approved last year, are not in yet.

Meanwhile, Horowitz argues that the state should keep in mind its most vulnerable citizens.

"We want to be a place where everybody can afford to deal with these bad results from the lottery of life,” he stresses. “If you wind up sick or injured, Minnesota should be a place where you don't need to be concerned that your family's finances are going to be left in a state of ruin."

More than 33,000 new people were enrolled in the MinnesotaCare program during the latest enrollment period.





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