Pawlenty rejected $1 million in federal health care support
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 12:59 pm
- 10 Comments
Tim Pawlenty
At a meeting of the Legislature’s Health Care Access Commission, Sen. John Marty questioned Department of Commerce official John Gross about federal funding for the state’s insurance rate reviews, funds that are “virtually automatic,” so long as the state applies for them. But Minnesota missed out on $1 million in compensation for the rate review program — because Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn’t sign the completed application.
“So rather than sign a letter, we gave up a million dollars, which was automatic as I understand it? Virtually automatic? I mean every state that applied got the money? So the department did its work,” said Marty. “The governor just said ‘we don’t want a million dollars’ and we’ll not sign a letter.”
TheUptake has video and transcript of Marty’s questions:
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Comment posted August 18, 2010 @ 1:20 pm
Let’s be fair about this. How is Timmy going to build his name recognition in Iowa and New Hampshire if he wastes his time governing Minnesota? After all, there are only so many hours in the day.
Comment posted August 18, 2010 @ 3:25 pm
What sort of point does Pawlenty think he makes in refusing such money? He certainly doesn’t get political points with the public and should the state encounter budget shortfalls or should insurers raise rates by an amount that angers the public, this sort of seemingly rash decision will be dredged up by his opponents. It is really not a wise political move.
Pingback posted August 18, 2010 @ 4:17 pm
[...] here to read the rest: Pawlenty rejected $1 million in federal health care support … This entry was posted in Health and tagged access, access-commission, commerce, department, [...]
Pingback posted August 18, 2010 @ 6:19 pm
[...] here to see the original: Pawlenty rejected $1 million in federal health care support … Pawlenty rejected $1 million in federal health care support [...]
Comment posted August 19, 2010 @ 1:47 pm
With all due respect, is there some reason you’re not covering the whole story? There’s a lot more to what the committee is trying to do, that would show why Pawlenty would continue to oppose ObamaCare. Are we to be bought off this easily?
Comment posted August 19, 2010 @ 7:46 pm
He’ll probably spin his neglect this way when 2012 rolls around: he was not distracted and therefore missed out on a million dollars to help Minnesota’s healthcare, but he was taking a firm stand against federal waste and lowering the federal deficit.
Comment posted August 20, 2010 @ 8:56 am
Steve – is there a reason why you aren’t responding to a request for more information?
Comment posted August 21, 2010 @ 10:59 am
Steve isn’t responding because he needs to follow the typical procedure when arguing politics: That procedure is to simply make a statement, like Steve did, and not cite resources or give an actual debatable point.
It’s absolutely darling that Pawlenty seems to want to make a point at the expense of the people of Minnesota.
Pingback posted August 27, 2010 @ 8:56 am
[...] turning down $1.4 billion in funds for early Medicaid expansion this June and a $1 million grant to reduce insurance premiums earlier this month, Governor Pawlenty may turn down yet another [...]
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