The way it’s supposed to work

Last week’s health care bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton was a rare sight in recent months in St. Paul. A carefully crafted compromise that included elements of both the proposal put forward by Gov. Dayton and the proposal by legislative Republicans.

Too often in recent years the two sides have squared off and the result has been a lack of accomplishments by the state legislature and the state government. This dates back to the government shutdown when the state government was in limbo for two weeks when the legislature and governor could not come to an agreement. It continued last year when the House Republicans, Senate Democrats and Gov. Dayton could not come to an agreement on most of the major bills that came before them during the session and then, even with a crisis in health care costs looming, still could not come to an agreement for a special session.

The bill that passed the legislature last week provide a a 25 percent premium reduction to Minnesotans who do not qualify for MNSure tax credits - as Gov. Dayton proposed, and some Republican-led reforms that are intended to increase competition and consumer choice, such as allowing for-profit HMOs to operate in Minnesota, providing greater transparency for proposed insurance premium changes by requiring earlier disclosure of proposed rates and more.

This is what happens when both sides are faced with a looming deadline and work together to solve problems, with out political grandstanding and posturing. We’ve seen too much of that from both sides. It would be encouraging if the governor and the legislature continue to have dialogue and work toward meaningful compromise to benefit Minnesotans, rather than working to score points with their political supporters.

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