Liz's 2023 Legislative Wrap Up

July 20, 2023

Dear Neighbor, 

Because of you, the Minnesota Legislature was able to make the 2023 legislative session a year of transformational progress. Thank you to all who went to the polls, came to the Capitol, and showed up when it mattered most.

During this year’s legislative session, we codified reproductive freedom, passed legislation to protect the LGBTQIA2S+ community, expanded access to healthcare, invested in infrastructure, strengthened worker protections, advanced climate sustainability, expanded voting rights, funded education, and so much more. I’m proud to see the passage of the monumental achievements that had initially inspired me to run for office: advancing racial equity and justice, promoting climate sustainability, and ultimately making sure we care for one another. 

Over the next several weeks, I will be sending you detailed descriptions of my accomplishments this year, with information about the bills I lead-authored (marked with ^), co-authored (marked with *), or supported. Because there is so much information to share, today I’m going to begin by focusing on:

• healthcare affordability and accessibility,
• protecting reproductive freedom, 
• rights for the LGBTQIA2S+ community,
• addressing the needs of seniors, and 
• supporting people with disabilities. 

Affordable & Accessible Healthcare 

• Ending predatory practices in medical debt collection, including prohibiting private hospitals from seizing a patient’s tax refund to cover their medical debt.^
• Ensuring people with rare diseases are not restricted or limited by insurers in choosing health plan coverage while securing ongoing funding for the Minnesota Rare Disease Advisory Council.^
• Requiring health plans to cover biomarker testing for detecting, monitoring, and treating illness or disease.^
• Mandating hospitals to screen patients for eligible health coverage or payment assistance and provide help for applying to these programs.^
• Creating a Health Care Affordability Board and Health Care Affordability Council to monitor the status of and make recommendations to address healthcare costs.^
• Directing the Commissioner of Health to analyze the benefits and costs of a proposed universal health care financing system.^
• Addressing the high medication costs by prohibiting price gouging of generic drugs sold in our state and establishing a new Prescription Drug Affordability Board to investigate and stop the rising costs of prescription medication.*
• Enabling persons with undocumented immigration status to apply for MinnesotaCare.

Reproductive Freedom

• Expanding funding for family planning services.^
• Increasing reimbursement for abortion and other reproductive health services.^
• Establishing abortion rights and reproductive freedom as guaranteed legal rights codified in the Minnesota Constitution with the PRO Act.
• Repealing outdated abortion regulations and restrictions on care to protect and encourage safe and autonomous reproductive healthcare. 

Protections for Our LGBTQIA2S+ Community

• Establishing Minnesota as a refuge state for children seeking gender-affirming care, meaning they cannot face legal repercussions from other states for receiving care.*
• Banning the dangerous and unethical practice of conversion therapy.*
• Updating the Minnesota Human Rights Act to reflect a more inclusive definition of “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” and that affirms that a person’s gender identity is a protected class.*

Looking Out for Seniors

• Broadening the exemption for taxation on social security so that seniors making less than $100,000 annually for joint filers and $78,000 for single filers will have their social security fully exempted from state income taxation. As a result, 76% of seniors will pay no taxes on their Social Security income. 
• Investing $300 million in nursing homes with nursing facility grants, workforce incentives and leveraging federal Medicaid funds for increased daily rate reimbursement. 
• Committing an additional $412 million to the Elderly Waiver program for community-based services for low-income seniors in assisted living.
• Developing financing for a program of all-inclusive care for the elderly (PACE) to provide comprehensive medical and social services for older adults.^

Rights, Services, and Funding for People with Disabilities

• Adopting recommendations of the Advisory Task Force on State Employment and Retention of Employees with Disabilities to support state employees with disabilities.^ 
• Increasing the amount of reimbursable hours for family caregivers.^
• Establishing a rate increase for behavioral health providers to develop the mental health workforce and increase availability of services.^ 
• Increases in rates for workers in nursing homes, residential care facilities, and community based care to provide a living wage.
• Providing additional funding for HIV/AIDS support services.

These pieces of legislation are already starting to benefit Burnsville and Eagan and improve the lives of all Minnesotans. But the progress doesn’t stop here; there’s much to do, and I can’t wait to get to work next session. 

Until then, I’ll be working hard to gear up for next year’s election. All of these accomplishments are only possible because of your ongoing support. Now we must come together to keep this seat in DFL hands and to keep the trifecta in 2024. Will you consider making a meaningful contribution today? It is because of your time, energy, hard work, and donations that we have been able to pass such monumental legislation that will have huge impacts on the lives of people in Burnsville and Eagan. I hope you will consider making a contribution to support our work. 

All the best,

Liz