April 25, 2023 | Press Release
ST. PAUL — Today Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) and Center of the American Experiment drew attention to serious rationing problems in the Minnesota House Omnibus Health bill. The bill would create a commission with the power to impose spending caps that incentivize cuts in care to the most vulnerable patients.
“We are an aging population,” said MCCL Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser in the press conference at the Capitol. “Aging brings health issues, even disability issues. Aging brings increased health care costs. Every Minnesotan is threatened by the inevitable rationing that will be forced by the actions of the board created by this bill.”
Peter Nelson, a senior policy fellow at Center of the American Experiment, said: “Everyone agrees health care costs too much. But empowering the government to strong-arm lower costs will inevitably lead to other problems. The hard truth is that any one mandate to lower health care costs will likely come at the expense of the most vulnerable. This includes people with expensive chronic conditions, the disabled, and the elderly. … There are better opportunities to control health care costs which do not pose the same risks to vulnerable patients.”
Dr. Martha Guzman, past president of the Catholic Medical Association, commented: “We believe that human beings have dignity from the moment of conception until natural death. … We need to … save wasted resources that we know happen in the medical community and address those, and not just get a bunch of people that are worried about the bottom line deciding who gets health care and who doesn’t.”
Blaeser also drew attention to the House bill’s repeal of protection for newborn babies. The bill would strip out the existing requirement that reasonable measures be taken to “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant,” replacing it with a mere requirement for care. “Sadly, if that newborn baby has disabilities or a genetic disease, all the more reason [under the House bill] to just offer her comfort care instead of lifesaving care,” said Blaeser.
The House Omnibus Health bill could be voted on this week.