Ropes named to single-payer health care group
By Daily News staff
Minnesota state Sen. Sharon Erickson Ropes, DFL-Winona, has been named co-chairwoman of a group charged with finding health care solutions that would lead to coverage for all Minnesotans in the next five years.
Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, chairwoman of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Budget Division and longtime advocate and expert on health care issues, appointed Ropes to the Minnesota Health Care Access Commission’s working group on single-payer health care.
The Single Payer Health Care Working Group has been asked to complete four tasks: establish a benefit set; establish how much providers will be paid; obtain a complete fiscal note indicating expected costs; and recommend how to pay for any costs associated with the fiscal note.
The information is expected to be delivered to the commission by the end of October, with the goal of reporting a list of recommendations to the full Legislature by January. The policies included in that list will provide a path for the state to follow to achieve universal health care coverage by 2011.
For more information on the HCAC or the single-payer working group, contact Sen. Erickson Ropes at (651) 296-5649 or sen.sharon.erickson. ropes@senate.mn.