Child health Q&A: Minnesota.

David Doth, Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner

Editor's Note; The state of Minnesota currently covers approximately 54,000 otherwise uninsured children through MinnesotaCare, or MinnCare. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota had the lowest annual percentage of uninsured children nationwide between 1993 and 1995. After instituting MinnCare, the proportion of children uninsured for 12 months or more fell by nearly 40 percent, from 5.2 percent in 1990 to 3.1 percent in 1995. Public Welfare talked recently with David Doth, commissioner of Minnesota's Department of Human Services, about Minnesota's insurance program and the federal child health insurance initiative.

PW: Minnesota's 1115 waiver for Medicaid covers children and adults who are considerably above the federal minimum requirement. Will you describe the program briefly?

Doth: MinnCare was enacted by the 1992 Legislature as a state-funded subsidy program to address the growing problem of uninsured families and children. The program contains measures to avoid erosion of the private health care market. In 1995, [the Health Care Financing Administration] approved Minnesota's waiver request to provide Medicaid coverage for pregnant women and children through MinnCare.

PW: What is your standard benefit package through your waiver, and who is covered?

Doth: The MinnCare benefit package for children and pregnant women is the same as the Medicaid package of services under the state plan. Copayments are not required for children.

PW: Minnesota has expanded its health care program to such a degree that it now seems to be in a Catch-22 position in terms of expanding health care further under the new federal child health initiative. Would you agree?

Doth: Yes. Minnesota now covers children up to 275 percent of poverty. This is higher than is contemplated, I believe, in the federal proposal. We cover these children, both Medicaid-eligible and non-Medicaid-eligible, under a waiver. Under the Medicaid-eligible waiver, we now cover some 54,000 kids. Many of the uninsured kids that would otherwise be covered under the federal initiative already receive some kind of health care, some kind of coverage.

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