Insurance

Allina big debt

On:
In: Home, Insurance, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses

By Rick Fuentes

MNA Communications Specialist

 

Ok, check-ups aren’t fun.  Not because of what they might find but because what they might ask.  Who wants to admit they thought mac and cheese was a food group?  Still, they keep us healthy, even financially.

 

MNA members receive free counsel with Dorval and Chorne Financial Advisors.  This is not a small benefit or something to take for granted.  Most financial planners charge about $200 an hour for their advice, or, if they invest on your behalf, they take 1 percent of your proceeds as compensation. 
… Read more about: Get a Check-Up! A Financial One!  »

On:
In: Activism, Affordable Care Act, Home, Insurance, Nurses, Single Payer

By Tara Fugate

MNA Strategic Researcher

 

This Friday, June 22nd, nurses and hundreds of progressive activists from across the country are gathering in Minneapolis to support a simple, fair, and universal healthcare reform of the American healthcare system. Join MNA nurses and others in supporting an improved and expanded Medicare for All system by attending the March for Guaranteed Healthcare.

Healthcare is an undeniable basic need for every American. Yet, many still lack access to affordable care. Millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured and make the challenging decision to delay or skip seeking care in order to avoid overwhelming medical debt.
… Read more about: March for Guaranteed Healthcare  »

On:
In: Allina, Healthcare, Home, Insurance, Jason Lewis, Politics

By Jean Forman, RN

MNA Member

 

I’m a nurse at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. I’m also MNA tri-chair for Abbott and for Phillips Eye Institute. I recently attended a rally at an elected representative’s home to support expanding Medicaid. My journey from a political bystander to an activist has been accelerated by the Allina Metro strike of 2016. I learned so much about how legislation can affect me at my workplace and more significantly how the right legislation can impact the public good. I have been supported at MNA by so many people to get active. So I have tried a few things over the last few years, but I would say the strike and the election last year gave me the impetus to really get out there.
… Read more about: Political Activism and Its Many Forms  »

CentraCare

On:
In: CentraCare, Essentia, Fairview, Healthcare, HMO, Home, Hospitals, Insurance, Issues

By Tara Fugate

MNA Strategic Researcher

Hospital and health system consolidation is a rapidly expanding trend across the country, and Minnesota is no exception. Many large and mid-sized health systems have been looking to privatize the state’s dwindling number of public hospitals, combine smaller non-profit systems, and also incorporate physicians’ groups and outpatient services into hospital systems. The driving arguments to lobby for these mergers are that larger entities can provide more integrated care and have the ability to make bigger financial investments to improve the quality of care via new tools, such as electronic health records systems. Many studies, however, have shown that price, cost and quality of care are not improved by mergers (see below for links).
… Read more about: Why Minnesotans Should Pay Attention to Hospital Consolidation  »

On:
In: HMO, Home, Insurance, Legislative Policy, Uncategorized

by Rose Roach

MNA Executive Director

As an organization representing 21,000 healthcare professionals, the vast majority of whom are registered nurses, MNA has long advocated for reforms that make healthcare more affordable and accessible to patients who need it because the safety and care of patients is our number one priority. As part of that advocacy we have been calling for regulations that hold Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) accountable for public tax dollars they receive to provide coverage for those who need it most.

Yet with billions going to the HMOs every year to administer public programs, the public has no information about how much of that money is actually providing care to patients who rely on MinnesotaCare and Medical Assistance, and how much is going into CEO salaries, reserves, marketing and lobbying.
… Read more about: Make HMOs Accountable for their Public Funds  »

On:
In: Activism, Health Care Reform, Home, Insurance, Politics, Single Payer

By Barb Brady

MNA Communications Specialist

April 11 brought Minnesotans together for a Day of Action for Healthcare for All. A crowd gathered near Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s headquarters in Eagan to rally for a publicly funded healthcare system that covers everyone and costs less: Medicare for All.

Speakers from the Minnesota Nurses Association, National Nurses United, the Land Stewardship Project, and Physicians for a National Health Program energized dozens of attendees with a call for Medicare for All, which would ensure access to quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans.

The group then went to Blue Cross/Blue Shield headquarters with a letter asking for Blue Cross CEO Michael Guyette to publicly commit to lowering premiums and selling individual insurance products statewide.
… Read more about: Day of Action Calls for Healthcare for All  »

On:
In: Home, Insurance, Press Releases

An Insurance Industry Bailout Won’t Give Minnesotans Affordable Healthcare

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Rick Fuentes
(o) 651-414-2863
(c) 612-741-0662
rick.fuentes@mnnurses.org

Barbara Brady
(o) 651-414-2249
(c) 651-202-0845
barbara.brady@mnnurses.org

(St. Paul) – March 30, 2017 – Registered Nurses of the Minnesota Nurses Association are calling on Governor Mark Dayton to veto a state reinsurance bill when it reaches his desk.  Despite last-minute lobbying by nurses at the Capitol on Thursday, reinsurance bill passed both the House and Senate by a slim majority.

“This bill, while giving insurance companies a massive taxpayer-funded windfall, does not solve the problems facing Minnesotans who need affordable healthcare in the individual insurance market, including better access to coverage, lower insurance costs, and more adequate provider networks,” said Mary Turner, MNA president.
… Read more about: Press Release: Nurses Urge Governor to Veto Reinsurance Bill  »

On:
In: Healthcare, Home, Insurance, Mayo

 

By Mathew Keller, RN JD
Regulatory and Policy Nursing Specialist

A recent statement by the Mayo Clinic’s CEO John Noseworthy, as reported in the Star Tribune, speaks volumes as to the true status of healthcare in America: those with the money get the care they need, those without, get something else. As Noseworthy put it, “if [a] patient has commercial insurance, or they’re Medicaid or Medicare patients and they’re equal…we prioritize the commercial insured patients enough so … we can be financially strong at the end of the year.”

A Mayo spokesman went on to say, “We can provide the care they require for complex medical issues.
… Read more about: Mayo Clinic’s Sad Statement on Healthcare in America  »

On:
In: Allina, Home, Insurance, Nurses

By Mathew Keller RN JD

MNA Regulatory and Policy Specialist

“In Minnesota, like the rest of the country, our health care system is in crisis. Healthcare premiums have increased at double-digit levels year-after-year. Employers are being squeezed by these costs, and healthcare has become prohibitively expensive for many self-employed, retired, and uninsured citizens. In this climate, nonprofit healthcare organizations owe a heightened duty to show proper stewardship.”

This was testimony offered to the U.S. Senate Finance committee not this week, not this year, not even this decade—but on April 5, 2005, by then-Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch. It was spurred in part by a comprehensive audit performed by the Attorney General’s office on Allina Health and its subsidiary insurance company, Medica.
… Read more about: With Allina-Aetna Insurance Partnership, It’s Buyer Beware  »

On:
In: Bernie Sanders, Home, Hospitals, Insurance, Labor Unions, Nurses

By Rick Fuentes

MNA Communications Specialist

There’s been a lot of scare tactics lately about the Cadillac Tax. Recently, one of the big Twin Cities hospital chains even produced a video for its employees where a cartoon employee drives her old Cadillac into a car dealer to get a newer, cheaper car. Make no mistake, however, the Cadillac Tax isn’t about to run over middle-class workers. At least not yet.

The “Cadillac Tax” or excise tax is part of the Affordable Care Act, which set a 40 percent tax on insurance plans valued over $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for families.
… Read more about: The Truth About the Cadillac Tax  »