Despite executive order, Pawlenty says he will apply for Medicaid funds

Tim Pawlenty. Photo: Facebook

Despite signing an executive order on Tuesday decrying “Obamacare” and directing state departments to reject discretionary healthcare grants from the federal government, Gov. Tim Pawlenty says the state will probably apply for $263 million in Medicaid funds available through a bill signed into law in early August. Pawlenty had previously hedged on whether  his administration would apply for the funds by the Sept. 24 deadline.

“We’ll likely take that money,” Pawlenty told the Star Tribune. “It’s not Obamacare, it is something that we were going to be doing anyhow.”

He said the state will take federal money “where it’s appropriate and where it’s wise and doesn’t further some stupid policy agenda or otherwise concerns us or sign us up for something that is unsustainable or otherwise cause us a problem, we’re going to apply for those other pots of money.”

Last week, Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and House Majority Leader Tony Sertich wrote a letter to Pawlenty urging him to accept the deficit-neutral funding on Minnesota’s behalf.

“Failure to accept the funds would result in residents paying federal taxes to pay for Medicare programs in other states,” they wrote. The Minnesota Medical Association and the Mayo Clinic also called on Pawlenty to secure the funds for the state.

In addition to refusing discretionary funding set aside for Minnesota in the federal health care law, Pawlenty also turned down nearly $2 million in federal funds for the state: $850,000 in free funding for comprehensive sex-education programs (he’s opting for a program whereby the state can receive a $505,000 grant for abstinence-only education after coming up with  $380,000 of its own) and $1 million in federal funding for Minnesota’s health insurance rate reviews.