As the committee deadlines here at the Capitol near, many bills are being heard in committees. This week pieces of legislation such as the smoking ban in public facilities and the statewide health insurance for school district employees were heard. Other bills were also heard in detail in both the Senate and House committees. A bill to revise the hospital moratorium process was heard and passed in the Senate Health and Family Security committee on Thursday night. The second hospital issue last year in St. Cloud and Sartell showed the need for this legislation. The group that wants to build a new hospital would pay for a study by the Department of Health. The Department would look at issues including the effects on existing health care in the area and the available work force. The final decision would still be in the hands of the legislature by with the additional information by the Department of Health. Also heard in the Senate Health & Family Security Committee this week was a bill to include the assisted living facilities definition to long term care policies in Minnesota statute, and a bill to amend child protection laws for relatives. According to the later bill, if a relative at first denies care for a child who is a relative and then later on in the process is able to now care for that child, they are no longer permanently denied from the process. This bill was passed in the Health and Family Security Committee on Tuesday and in the Judiciary committee on Thursday. The Senate Commerce committee passed a bill this week stating that insurance companies can not refuse to renew or decline to write a policy for homeowners insurance due to daycare in the home. This bill will now be heard before the full Senate for a vote. The Commerce committee also heard the statewide health insurance mandate for school employees bill on Wednesday. The bill would mandate a statewide health insurance pool for school district employees and establish the Minnesota School Employee Insurance Board to create and administer the pool. This board would consist of 14 members: seven appointed by the school employee unions and seven appointed by the Minnesota School Board Association. The School Employee Insurance Plan Study and Design Committee has presented a report to the legislature outlining statewide health insurance options for all K-12 employees to be considered. There are concerns about the report and how the study has been put together. There are also questions arising to those school employees who are happy with their current coverage and will see a drop in benefits and a rise in premiums under the new pool. Before the Commerce committee heard testimony on this bill, the Senate K- 12 Education Budget committee added an amendment that would deleted portions of the bill that would allow the implementation of a statewide health insurance plan for all school employees starting July 1, 2005. Instead, a specific and final plan for statewide school employee health insurance would have to be developed and reported to the Legislature by January 15, 2005, and actual implementation could only take place if authorized by the legislature. This would give the legislature an actual plan to base a decision on and whether or not such a plan actually would be an improvement over the local/regional plans that currently exist. The bill passed the Senate Commerce committee and is headed now to the Senate State and Local Government Operations committee.
