Alpha News: New Fees On Medication Could Raise Cost Of Healthcare In Minnesota
“The House bill, HF 400, establishes an opioid stewardship fund and an Opioid Addiction Advisory Council. However, the most controversial aspect of this bill is its opiate product registration fee.
The opiate registration fee would apply to pharmaceutical distributors, increasing costs for everyone involved. These fees “specifically target sick people and raises the cost of their treatment” Jason Flohrs, Minnesota State Director for Americans For Prosperity (AFP) says adding that it is “not an effective way to confront the opioid epidemic”
Minnesotans are already struggling with increased healthcare costs but “with a billion-dollar budget surplus, we can surely find the necessary funding to alleviate this crisis without sticking sick people with higher costs” says Flohrs, adding that if this truly was a priority for legislators, the money would come out of the general fund to support this.
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In the end, as clearly shown by the budget surplus, our state is already collecting more revenue than projected. “We should not go backwards to arbitrarily driving up health care costs, no matter how well-intentioned the rationale” Florhs concluded in his letter to members of the Minnesota Senate.”
Read the full article here.
