Making Life More Affordable

Matt knows inflation has hit everybody’s wallets hard. While decisions at the federal level drive gas and grocery prices higher, Matt’s zeroing in on three big budget items for families where he can have an impact. Matt calls them “The Three Cares”: health care, child care, and senior care.

 

Making Health Care More Affordable

Health care is a big part of Minnesotans’ budgets. Even if you have insurance, higher monthly premiums and deductibles mean people are paying more than ever out of pocket. Matt’s focused on making health care more affordable.

  • Matt supports creating a “public option” insurance plan focused on people, not profits. It would be an alternative for Minnesotans not happy with their current insurance or without access to insurance. Premiums would depend on your income. And you would get the high-quality insurance offered by the state’s existing MinnesotaCare insurance program. Since this program is already running, the state could expand it in an affordable way. And it would add competition to the insurance market to drive down costs across the board.

  • Matt hears a lot from parents about the cost of taking their child to the doctor, even for a simple well child visit. We want children to go to the doctor regularly since we know it’s cheapest to treat a medical issue if you catch it early. And getting children off to a healthy start results in a lifetime of savings as healthier adults. That’s why Matt is proposing to make all well child visits free in Minnesota.

  • Matt was proud to co-author the creation of a Prescription Drug Affordability Board in Minnesota. This board will review drug prices. And if it finds drug companies are taking advantage of consumers, the board can put in price caps on high priced drugs. How come Matt’s confident it will work? Because big drug companies ran attack billboards against Matt for supporting the bill! Matt will work to defend and expand the work of this important tool to protect patients.

    He also supports other impactful ideas. For example, some states are using their buying power to negotiate discounted prices with drug companies. Minnesota should start a similar program on its own or band together with other states to gain even more buying power.

Making Child Care More Affordable

For many families, child care costs more than their housing! As a result, many parents are opting to stay home or work fewer hours. This only makes Minnesota’s workforce shortage worse. We need to band together to provide affordable child care while also supporting a living wage for those providing child care.

Cap Child Care Expenses for Minnesota Families

The average Minnesota family spends 20% of their income on childcare. That’s among the highest in the nation! The plan I’m co-authoring at the Capitol would reduce that to 0% to 7% of a family’s income depending on how much a family makes each year.

Focus on Quality. Cut Red Tape.

Child care providers should be focused on getting kids ready for kindergarten. We should promote practices and standards that achieve this goal. At the same time, we should cut unnecessary red tape for providers if it doesn’t promote health, safety, or quality.

Make Providing Child Care a Living Wage Job

The dedicated Minnesotans who work in child care deserve to make a living wage. I’ll make sure child care assistance payments are high enough to keep workers in this important industry. I’ll also build on the legislation I passed that funded a YWCA program to train workers to enter the child care field.

Making Senior Care More Affordable

As our state’s population ages, the need for senior care will only grow. Yet, the cost of care is out of reach for many seniors. It’s also a struggle to attract workers to this industry and keep them. A reimagining of senior care is needed to prepare for the “silver tsunami.”

Encourage Innovation to Improve Care and Save Money

  • Turn senior care facilities community-facing. This includes inviting more community members into facilities to help with caregiving and offering new services like respite care and daycare to relieve family caregivers. Benefits include more support for seniors in the community and their caregivers, less isolation for care center residents, and more engaged staff.

  • Utilize technology to supplement the work of caregivers. Minnesota startups have developed new innovations to improve quality of care and multiply the effectiveness of existing care workers. This will allow people to stay in their homes longer where care is more affordable.

  • Find ways to save money, like a bill Matt’s authored requiring medication management reviews for assisted living residents by pharmacists. This practice can remove unnecessary prescriptions and prevent dangerous drug interactions.

Scrutinize For-Profit Ownership of Care Facilities

Nearly 70% of nursing homes are now owned by for-profit entities. Too often, these companies put investor profits over residents. Matt will support careful oversight of these ownership groups to make sure quality care is the top priority.

Support Senior Care Workers

It’s getting harder and harder to attract workers to care for seniors. Low pay, physically demanding roles, and low morale make recruitment challenging and turnover high. Matt supports a living wage for these workers while finding ways to provide enrichment and growth to make this noble work a career, not just a job.