Minnesota's Rep. Jaros sponsors single-payer health care

Budgeteer News
Last Updated: Friday, February 07th, 2003 11:57:45 AM

State Rep. Mike Jaros, DFL-Duluth, has authored a bill that would create a single-payer universal health care system in Minnesota.

“We cannot wait for the federal government to reform our medical system,” Jaros said. “If we want change, Minnesota is going to have to lead as it has on so many other issues. The Canadian health care system was not reformed from Ottawa, but from Saskatchewan. Washington has not made an attempt to seriously reform our health care system since the Clinton administration’s attempt 10 years ago.”

Jaros based his legislation on the findings of the Minnesota Healthcare Cost Study
Commission on which he served in the early 1990s. “Our commission found three major reasons for the huge health care cost increases over the last two decades,” Jaros said. “The first was top-heavy administration costs caused by so many complicated plans and the high commissions paid to sales agents during the first year. The second was technological advances that forced hospitals to invest in ever more expensive equipment as a way to compete. The third was a lack of coherent public policy on both the federal and state levels.”

Jaros said that administrative costs average between 20 and 40 percent for most health plans, far out of line when compared with the administrative costs of other consumer products. He also said that competition between plans and hospitals has more often than not led to higher health care costs.

“The big driver here is technology,” he said. “Competition between various clinics and hospitals actually increases costs because they are forced to buy more expensive equipment to keep up, even when demand for that equipment isn’t enough to justify the cost for the machines.”

Jaros said the system needs a fundamental restructuring to address these problems.

“We must change and simplify the system to reduce the administrative costs and regulate technological costs, otherwise these rising costs are going to bankrupt both businesses and government,” he said. “That’s going to take a coherent policy administered by the state.”

http://www.duluth.com/placed/index.php?story_id=132101