Minnesota Medical Association: Physicians Gather to Discuss Public Health Insurance Option in MN

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, Feb. 14 -- The Minnesota Medical Association issued the following news:

A group of dedicated physician and physician-in-training advocates gathered both in-person and online on a frigid morning on Feb. 13 to discuss the impact on patients and physicians of a public health insurance option at the Renaissance Minneapolis Bloomington Hotel.

Kathleen Call, PhD, a professor with the Division of Health Policy and Management, and SHADAC at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, provided the group with an overview of various state-level public option proposals, shared the experience of two states who have passed public options, and painted a picture of Minnesota's current health insurance landscape.

Call noted that in assessing reform, those in the health care industry need to take a step back and think about: 1) What do we want health reform to accomplish; 2) what kind of society do we want; and 3) what values should health care reform be built upon, embody and achieve?

Attendees then discussed the impact a public option would have on physicians and their patients in Minnesota and helped shape MMA policy. The MMA will use the feedback gathered at the forum to weigh options on future policy positions.

Along with the MMA, the event was sponsored by the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians; the Minnesota Academy of Ophthalmology; the Minnesota Chapter of the American College of Physicians; the Minnesota Section of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists and the Twin Cities Medical Society.