As of about 9:00 this morning, the Minnesota state government shutdown ended. Shortly thereafter, I received the call to return to work tomorrow. I’m not sure any grand lessons have been learned from this experience. Our political leaders continue to focus on short-term ideological wins rather than the state’s long-term budget problems. And I’m not sure voters with notoriously short memories will hold their elected officials accountable for their lack of vision.
From a health policy perspective, there’s not much to like in the final budget. Republicans are bragging about holding costs down through “reform”, but many of those reforms are simply cutting payments to providers (including my nurses) and forcing some low-income individuals to purchase private health insurance that is less comprehensive than what’s currently available through public health coverage. “Reform” now seems to be Republican newspeak for “I’ve got mine and, by the way, here’s a little less for you poor folk.” And now it’s up to us bureaucrats to implement said “reforms”, which will we do with skilled professionalism. But we may vent our frustrations during an occasional happy hour get-together or in a long-winded blog post.
