MN Health Care Access Fund Could End Under GOP Budget, Walz Wants To Keep It

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – Gov. Walz held a roundtable at Lake Region Health Care about saving a funding stream for the state’s health care access fund.

Minnesota’s 2% provider tax was created to increase access to care, contain health care costs and improve the quality of services for Minnesotans. .

The 27-year-old tax with decades of bipartisan support is set to expire at the end of the year unless the Legislature acts. The Republican-controlled Senate budget ends the provider tax. The Democrat governor wants them to change that decision.

“There’s a real need to be sure we keep doing what’s been done for about three decades to continue this really effective program. It delivers healthcare and does it in a financially sound manner and that’s what we’re out here to kind of highlight,” Walz said.

The proposal has already been approved by the House but is still waiting to be greenlit in the Senate.