Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

The bill that I chose to do research on is Bill Number: HF2256. This bill was about health care availability and affordability guaranteed for every Minnesotan, Minnesota Health Plan, Health Board, Health Fund, Office of Health Quality and Planning, ombudsman for patient advocacy, and inspector general for the Minnesota Health Plan established, and money appropriated.

Who is affected by this issue…

I think that the people who would be affected the most in this issue, would be people with no or low incomes. This would affect them in a positive way because it is the lower class who cannot always afford health care. Making it available and affordable to them would make them healthier and be able to get the care they deserve. Workplaces would not have employees calling in sick to work as much, if everyone could get the appropriate health care. I guess who would lose would be the people organizations that would have to a make up for the difference in the cost the people would pay, and the cost of what the care should actually be. I’d assume this would mean insurance companies and possibly some health care facilities themselves. . In my research I found that by making insurance more affordable, 40,00-46,000 people would probably enroll and use the services, which shows that this is readily needed.

Consequences of this issue…

I think overall the consequences of this issue would be only good ones! People will overall be healthier, and with people being healthier they can go to work more, make more money and live an overall better life. Their families would be affected in a positive way for a few reasons. First of all, children of low income families can get the health care that they need and deserve. Growing up requires a lot of medical care, and especially for low income families, they have more health problems, so giving them the health care resources that they need would be very beneficial. The society as a whole would be healthier if everyone had health care available to them. This would maybe mean less sickness and diseases spreading so everyone would benefit. One bad consequence would be the money issue; someone has to pay for the health care that the people would be receiving.

Economic Impact of this issue…

If this bill is passed, taxpayers will have to pay more to help cover the costs of health care for the lower class. Some governmental agencies may also be affected by needing to help cover the costs. Insurance agencies may be affected by being forced to give people insurance who could maybe not otherwise afford it. Taxpayers I think will be the most upset by the issue at hand at first. However, this is a really important issue and if everyone can have affordable health care, everyone will benefit from it. In my research I found that if everyone got affordable insurance it would cost between $159 million and $1.8 billion each year for everyone to have.

Social impact of this issue…

A lot of people miss work because of being ill. With health care being more affordable, people would miss fewer days of work. Also, if employees’ children are getting health care and not being sick, the parents won’t have to take off to take care of their children, who are now going to school healthy and not spreading sicknesses. The social impact overall, I think will be that everyone’s healthier, so everyone can live a better life.


Barriers to the issue…

I think the largest barrier to this will be people almost not caring. The taxpayers aren’t going to want to pay for other people’s health care when they already have their own to pay for. These barriers could hopefully be overcome by showing why this issue is important and really pushing the benefits over the negatives of this bill. I think the annual price is really high, and will scare people, but I think it’s needed, because 40,000 people is a lot, and that’s a huge number that aren’t getting the insurance that they need already.

What are the resources…

The main resource we need for this issue is money. It will also take health care facilities to be aware and knowledgeable of the plan so they can recognize that more lower income families will be starting to use their resources more. Insurance companies that are ready to help people who can’t afford insurance will need to be used. Support from community members is very important as well, because without their support, this bill will never be passed.

History of the issue…

I couldn’t find a ton of history in this issue, but I did find something that was kind of beneficial. In January of 2008 resolutions were made about this issue. At first the issue was put aside and rejected because the cost is so high, however a new resolution was made creating a new way to possible afford and implement this plan. Here is what the new resolution said “Whereas, the health care crisis for all Minnesotans continues to escalate with no solutions for affordability being offered by the private sector; Therefore be it resolved, the Greater Minnesota Health Care Coalition (GMHCC) urges the Minnesota Legislature to enact a public, affordable, universal health care system for all Minnesotans, by passing Senate File 102 - House File 479, which would create a process to produce legislation for this purpose and require it to be implemented by 2010, and also proposes a constitutional amendment for the right to affordable health care; and Be it further resolved, the Greater Minnesota Health Care Coalition (GMHCC) supports, as stepping stones, state legislation to create a public health insurance system, such as one to unify state-subsidized programs, public employees', retirees', legislators', and small business health insurance and that of universal coverage for children.” So, things have been tried in the past and it is a difficult mission to try to take care of but steps are being taken.


Allies and Opponents…

I think that allies would be for one the Great Minnesota Health Care Coalition. They advocate for affordable, prescription drugs, sustainable Medicare Systems, and health care. Also, I actually found a huge list of places country wide that support health care systems and are big advocators for health care. So, they would all be allies. The website is protectyourhealthcare.org. I think the main opponent would be taxpayers, because its coming out of their pockets. Another group I found that would be opposed to this issue is the Health Policy Consensus Group.


I think policy makers should vote YES for affordable and available health care for all Minnesotans!


Here are some of the resources that I used to research this issue!

Health Insurance Affordability Study
True North
Health Care Battle Brewing
Health Policy Consensus Group