COACT endorses Al Doty for District 9

District 9 Senate Candidate Al Doty’s support for a cost-efficient and publicly accountable health care delivery system won Minnesota COACT’s enthusiastic endorsement following last Sunday’s (Aug. 19) 32nd Farm Picnic at Pierz Park, Pierz. The Picnic is co-sponsored by COACT and Morrison County Farmers Union.
Doty faces District 9 Senate incumbent Paul Gazelka in the November 9 General Election.
“Our endorsement follows more news on the state’s failing system,” said COACT board member and Albany farmer Jeff Kunstleben. According to a June Star Tribune report, Minnesota ranks second in the nation for people forced into high deductible insurance policies due to rising premiums. This means rising out-of-pocket costs for the 500,000 Minnesotans enrolled in these plans and higher profit for the insurers, the report said.
To a picnic crowd of 125 people, representatives of Minnesota Farmers Union, Land Stewardship Project, and COACT made the case for achieving savings and accountability through single-payer universal health care as defined in the Minnesota Health Plan bill, to which the candidates responded.
Doty cited a recent cost study by The Lewin Group, a subsidiary of United HealthGroup that shows the low overhead of single-payer would save $4.1 billion in total Minnesota health care spending in 2014. Average annual family savings would be $1,362; and average business savings would be $1,214 annually. State and local government would save $35.7 million. Gazelka said he instead encourages enrollment in market-based deductible plans and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) where competition will achieve savings and reduce costs. Doty said that isn’t happening by pointing to the accelerating premiums and deductibles of private plans.
The Minnesota Health Plan’s cost efficiency led to its passage through four legislative committees in the 2008-2010 biennium with 74 legislators signing on, including Doty.
Doty also commended passage of bi-partisan legislation in the 2012 session that will audit the state’s HMO contractors which have never been held accountable for the billions in tax dollars, now at $4 billion annually, that they receive for running the state’s health programs. They are currently under federal investigation for overcharging taxpayers.
“Of all the state legislative candidates, we know Al Doty and Taylor Stevenson is one of the most informed on the current system’s waste of our tax dollars and premiums, and the savings and transparency that would come from the Minnesota Health Plan,” said COACT President Sister Ruth Lenter of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls.