One of the more popular subjects in health policy circles lately is the notion of providing subsidized health care to newly unemployed workers. Paul Thissen, a Minnesota state legislator, is the latest to get in on the act with an editorial in the strib advocating for an expansion of MinnesotaCare that would provide health insurance to the jobless. MinnesotaCare is a largely state-funded health care program for low-income adults and families. It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think it will go far without a large infusion of cash from the feds. But this kind of push from Thissen and others would have been mocked and ridiculed in the media only a few years ago. The fact that these ideas are being greeted with serious consideration tells me that the old bogeyman of “socialized medicine” might not have the persuasive power it once did.
