More on Minnesota Care . . .

Spot is experiencing one of those malaises that Jimmy Carter was always warning us about. He doesn't know what it is, but he is having trouble working up much blood lust for anything in the news today. Maybe Spotty need something to help him free associate a little better.

So. Spot will write some more about a subject that has appeared on The Cucking Stool before, namely the Health Care Access Fund. As the faithful stenographer for the governor, Steve Sviggum, and Kevin Goodno, our good friend Katherine Kersten wrote about what an evil program Minnesota Care is and how it will break the bank, oh my! Spotty and several others have commented on the factual errors in the column, wholly apart from its tight-assed asceticism, e.g., here and here. Senator Linda Berglin also wrote an op-ed piece in the StarTribune criticizing Kersten's smear and for which Spot cannot find a link at the moment.

Remember, the Health Care Access Fund is funded with premiums, the 2% health care provider TAX (not fee), and Spot believes, some contribution from the federal government.

Anyway, here are some quotations from the president's message in the July/August 2004 issue of MetroDoctors, the journal of the Hennepin and Ramsey County Medical Associations. It was written by Peter J. Daly, M.D., the president of the Ramsey Medical Association.

. . . Governor Pawlenty used more that $100 million from the Health Care Access Fund to balance the budget [which he did unilaterally in the spring of 2004] and pay for expenditures in the General Fund that had nothing to do with health care.

. . . The Citizen's Council on Health Care noted that from 1992 - 1999, [never mind what has happened since] nearly 29% of the Health Care Access Fund's resources were diverted from the Minnesota Care subsidy program.

Charlatans.