Vetoed by Governor Mark Dayton

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes the health and human services budget for fiscal years 2018 and 2019.

Highlights:

• Appropriates $2 million in fiscal year 2018 and $3 million in fiscal year 2019 for grants to home and community-based waiver services providers that are expected to receive at least a ten-percent decrease in revenues due to the transition to new budget rates (Sec. 2).

• Reduces funds by 2.3 percent for basic care services provided between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2019 (Sec. 33).

• Reduces funds by 3 percent for basic care services provided on or after July 1, 2019 (Sec. 33).

• Prohibits health plans from containing any preexisting condition limitation or exclusion (Sec. 6).

• Prohibits public funds from being used for coverage of an abortion except in instances when the patient’s life is endangered or the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest (Sec. 34).

• Appropriates $4.16 million for grants to school-linked mental health services (Sec. 2).

• Appropriates $3.52 million for the reduction in service fees to the parents of children who are disabled (Sec. 2).

• Appropriates $2.6 million for support to people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing (Sec. 2).

• Removes the requirement for an annual face-to-face visit to elderly waiver recipients by a case manager (Sec. 15).

• Adds individualized home care services and independent living skills support to the disability waiver rate system (Sec. 21).

• Modifies the base wage index, component values and frequency of inflation adjustments (Sec. 22).  

• Appropriates $1.5 for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 for housing that supports adults with serious mental illness as a one-time appropriation (Sec. 2).

• Reduces overall funding for technology used to determine eligibility for benefits programs such as Medicaid and Medicare (Sec. 2)

• Offers a one-time available appropriation of $250,000 available until June 30, 2019 for public case management services (Sec. 2).

Full Bill Text