Pawlenty to congressional delegation: Abandon current health care bill

Minnesota’s congressional delegation, which last week sent a joint letter to President Obama about health care, today jointly received a letter from Gov. Pawlenty (pdf), also on health care. (No word on whether they’ve opened a joint NetFlix account yet.)

Pawlenty takes three pages to urge Minnesota’s members of Congress to “focus on cost containment, not just access expansion … on a bipartisan basis.” Along the way he criticizes GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney’s home state health plan and knocks the idea of a “government-designed benefits package” and “misleading ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric.” His advice: “abandon” current legislation on health care reform.

Unlike a report he co-authored with Minority Leader John Boehner, Pawlenty’s letter does not cite by name the Lewin Group, a consulting firm owned by Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group whose ideas on health care are finding their way into many Republican talking points.