Liz's Plan For Healthcare

Every single person is entitled to the health care they need when they need it.  No exceptions.

The Need

Race, income, employment, or legal status should not determine if someone receives the health care they need. For healthy families and communities and a prosperous Minnesota, everyone should have access to affordable health care. From children to seniors, people must be able to access medical, dental, vision, hearing, mental health, addiction services, reproductive care, and transgender coverage to allow them to live their lives to their full potential. 

Our Current Situation

As we all know, our current outdated system does not provide the care people deserve. Employers make decisions about the types and levels of care available to employees and their families. This gives large employers an advantage in hiring because they can afford to provide better benefits than small business owners. Employees may feel stuck working for health insurance instead of for what fulfills their lives. 

With the number of people in Minnesota without health insurance is at its lowest rate ever measured, work remains to be done. Disparities remain for diverse communities. The uninsured rate for non-Hispanic whites dropped from 3.7% in 2019 to 2.4 percent in 2021 while the uninsured rate for BIPOC residents increased from 7.6% in 2019 to 10.2% in 2021. 

Minnesota is one of the healthiest states in the nation, but has some of the worst health disparities according to The Cost of Health Inequities in Minnesota, a 2018 report by Blue Cross Blue Shield.

• “All communities can experience poor health outcomes, but due to systemic inequities, they disproportionately occur in communities of color and the Native American community.”
• This is costly, amounting to a cost from disparities in Minnesota of $2.26 billion each year in missed work and decreases in employment.

The Solution

MinnesotaCare expansion is a quick and clear solution. It’s a quality offering that will provide immediate relief using existing tools. Where there are gaps; for example, on meeting the needs of specific cultures, we must work with the affected communities to design solutions together.

I support federal action to guarantee universal coverage, but there are too many Minnesotans who can’t wait for that. The same is true with enacting universal coverage in Minnesota. We should pursue these fundamental system redesigns, and at the same, provide immediate relief.

We need to be smart and move fast —this approach will take us forward. It will meet the immediate health care needs of every Minnesotan right away. Once we do this, I will work with state Sen. John Marty and others to phase in a complete and comprehensive health care system of which we all can be proud. Back to the list of Issues .