Minn. Senator Wants To Kick HMOs Out of Public Health Plans

Created: 03/06/2011 10:44 PM KSTP.com

State Senator, John Marty, (DFL) Roseville, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS  that he plans to introduce legislation this week that would eliminate seven HMOs from delivering public health care plans like Meidicaid and Minn-Care.  Marty says HMOs spend three billion dollars of your tax dollars every year on public health care plans and do not open their books to state auditors. According to HMOs, they made a 109-million dollar profit on those programs in 2009 alone. Marty says, if HMOs are unwilling to submit to state audits, then he wants them removed from the process entirely.
Marty says the state of Connecticut faced a similar issue with HMOs refusing to submit to state audits, so the governor in that state kicked them out of the public programs. The Minnesota Council on Health Plans declined our request for an on-camera interview, but in a written statement the HMOs say they have delivered high quality health care at an affordable price to low-income Minnesotans for 25 years. They also said there are better options to transparency and efficiency than having government take over health care.

[Full newspaper article and series of KSTP stories in this document.]