Following the governor’s veto of a bill to restore $170 million in funding to the essentially defunct General Assistance Medical Care program, Democrats in the Senate voted to override. No Republicans joined in the vote.

The override attempt in the House was not successful. A 2/3 vote in the House was needed, which would have required 3 Republicans to vote for the override. None did so. The effort failed by a party-line vote of 86-47.

GAMC funding is slated to run out in April, when the governor plans to move all enrollees to the less generous Minnesota Care program. Minnesota Care is more similar to the traditional private health care plans most Minnesotans utilize and costs the state’s taxpayers far less per enrollee.

GAMC directly paid for 100% of all medical and dental care for the enrollee with unlimited coverage. The cost of the program has been skyrocketing, growing by 36% annually and it was clearly unsustainable.

The governor did the right thing for the state of Minnesota by vetoing the attempt to resurrect the bankrupt program. To be sure, beneficiaries of the extraordinarily generous program will protest the loss of their entitlement, but the approximately 30,000 enrollees aren’t being left high and dry by any stretch. Minnesota Care will provide them the same level of insurance coverage any privately insured worker has access to.

The demise of GAMC will mean one less bureaucracy for the state to maintain, and save the state money in direct payments and administration. Three additional medical assistance programs still remain. One could hope that they will eventually all be merged into one cost-effective program for even greater efficiency later.

Take Action: Contact your legislators and tell them what you think of their vote.