Pawlenty requests federal health care money

Tim Pawlenty. Photo: Facebook

Gov. Tim Pawlenty sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday requesting an estimated $263 million in federal health care money through the recently enacted Federal Medical Assistance Percentages program. A critic of the new program, which was passed by Congress in August, Pawlenty signed an executive order barring state agencies from requesting “discretionary” grants under the federal health reform law. The FMAP will help fund Medicaid and foster care programs in Minnesota.

“The federal government should not deficit spend to bail out states and special interest groups,” Pawlenty said following the passage of FMAP. “Minnesota balanced its budget without raising taxes and without relying on more federal money. The federal government’s reckless spending spree must come to an end.”

In Tuesday’s letter to Sebelius he reiterated that concern, noting the “overspending by the federal government and the unbearable burdens that spending will place on our economy.”

But he also said the FMAP program is consistent with Minnesota’s policy goals and that the state gets only 72 cents for every dollar it pays into the federal government.

“By that measure, Minnesota is the fifth-largest subsidizer of the federal government among the fifty states,” he wrote.

Here’s Pawlenty’s letter:

9.07.10-FMAPLetter