TOGETHER FOR HEALTH CAMPAIGN: TIMELINE AND VICTORIES

Between the public launch of the campaign in February 2011 and the fall of 2011, TakeAction’s Together for Health campaign kept major pressure on the HMOs who run our public health care programs, successfully brought this issue into the public conversation, and won tangible victories for the health of our state.

The work is not over, but real progress was made!

Victories

$30 million for the state of Minnesota
In the midst of our public campaign against exorbitant HMO profits, UCare returned $30 million in Medicaid overpayments to the state of Minnesota. This was the only new revenue generated in this year’s budget fight.

Governor Dayton’s Executive Order and final budget create real reforms
Governor Dayton issued an executive order to prevent HMOs’ from taking advantage of our public programs. This and other legislative reforms resulted in a projected 13% cut to state payments to HMOs. The reforms include:

• 1% cap on HMO profits for 2011– HMOs will not be allowed to make more than a 1% profit on state public programs in 2011.
• Alternative Delivery Models pilot – The state will run a pilot program to test alternative delivery models (not HMOs) for our public programs. TakeAction Minnesota has worked with 6 other organizations to give input on this pilot program, and the RFP excludes Managed Care Organizations from applying
• HMOs now must report detailed payment data to the state
• Comprehensive audits of HMOs
• HMOs must Reduce administrative expenses from 6.6% to 5.3%

Raised public awareness of HMO abuses
Throughout this campaign, press coverage of the issue was strong, including 4 major editorials in the Star Tribune, and an article on the front page of the business section (see links below).

Brought the fight to the HMOs
We organized the largest direct actions in TakeAction’s history, and got HMOs to listen and meet with us directly. See details on our actions below.

Hundreds of people from all around the state participated in this campaign. From a small group of citizens meeting in December, we grew to:

• 100 people at our kick-off in February
• Over 350 people participating in actions and meetings, many of them new
• Thousands participated on line and by phone, contacting their elected officials from all 67 Senate Districts about the issue.

Campaign Timeline

• THE ISSUE IN THE NEWS, August 27 and 28, 2011: Two TakeAction members respond to the editorial with letters calling not only for increased scrutiny but also for a cap on HMO reserves. Read the letters here and here.
• THE ISSUE IN THE NEWS, August 20, 2011: A Star Tribune Editorial argues that it is critical to continue to monitor the way HMOs are running our public programs.
• July 20, 2011: Government shutdown ends, final budget deal includes major reforms on HMOs
• July 1, 2011: Government shutdown begins. TakeAction healthcare members participate in community shutdown meetings and ask legislators to look to HMO reserves as part of a final budget solution. Read about the effect of these shutdown meetings here.
• June 2011: TakeAction members concerned about health care attend community meetings to voice support for capping HMO reserves as a source of revenue.
• May 21, 2011: As part of the People’s Rally for A Fair Minnesota, more than 800 people attended a rally at the Capitol to send a message to law makers that Minnesota needs a fair budget solution. Watch the Capitol rally here. Then, two-hundred people got on buses and visited the Calhoun Beach Club. They were there to send a message to the legislature that the richest Minnesotans – including Medica CEO David Tilford, a member of the elite Uptown athletic club -- can indeed afford to pay higher taxes. To watch the action at Calhoun Beach Club, click here.
• TAKEACTION WRITES, May 20, 2011: Read Dan McGrath’s blog post about why HMO reserves are an important part of a fair budget solution.
• May 5, 2011: Over 50 TakeAction Minnesota leaders delivered repossesson notices to Medica to demand that the health plan return over $200 million in excess financial reserves to the state of Minnesota. Following the action at Medica, activists reboarded their bus and headed to the State Capitol, letting the Governor and legislators know: "We found the money. We need it back for health care." Watch the action here.
• May 2-5, 2011: Meet Jim & Denny. They recently learned how much money HMOs are keeping for themselves. To get the money back, they formed Healthcare Money Owed Collections, Inc. For a week they visited the MN Council of Health Plans, searched for HMO CEOs and lobbyists, trying to deliver a bill for the $518M of public health care dollars the HMOs are holding onto. Frustrated that the money is overdue, Jim & Denny finally called for back-up. Follow the links to watch their adventures!
• April 19, 2011: TakeAction Minnesota and SEIU Healthcare performed a “citizen’s arrest” of UHG’s VP of Social Responsibility over UHG’s close business relationship with Medica. While she refused to answer the question directly, she later told the crowd that there is “no stone wall between Medica and UnitedHealth Group.” Click here to watch the UHG “citizen’s arrest” video.
• April 15, 2011: Blue Cross Blue Shield's The Human Doing spent a month living “healthily” in a glass box. The day before he was released, Together for Health leaders paid him a visit to talk about BCBS’s excess reserves. Click here to see the picture of the Human Doing giving TakeAction the thumbs up- he wantsthe reserves released too!
• THE ISSUE IN THE NEWS, April 17, 2011: TakeAction Minnesota Executive Director Dan McGrath talks about HealthPartners’ public commitment on KSTP.
• April 14, 2011: At their Annual Meeting, members of TakeAction and other concerned HealthPartners members ask questions about excess reserves. CEO Mary Brainerd says that HealthPartners supports a cap on reserves, making her company the first HMO to do so publicly.
• TAKEACTION WRITES, April 13, 2011: Read TakeAction leader Ann Marie Metzger’s blog post with an update of the campaign up to this point.
• April 13, 2011: Together for Health leaders visited the State Capitol to talk with key decision makers about the need for a legislative cap on reserves and a truly effective and efficient public health care system. See photos here!
• THE ISSUE IN THE NEWS, April 7, 2011: Star Tribune Editorial.
• TAKEACTION WRITES, April 7, 2011: Read TakeAction leader Meredith Webb’s blog post about our visit to the Council of Health Plans.
• April 7, 2011: TakeAction Minnesota leaders visit the Minnesota Council of Health Plans to deliver a past due notice on the HMOs $518 million dollars in excess reserves. Despite the lights being on, nobody at the Council of Health Plans would answer the door. Watch our visit to the Council of Health Plans here.
• April 5, 2011: Governor Dayton announces an agreement with the four largest HMOs to cap 2011 profits at one percent. TakeAction applauds Governor Dayton’s commitment to good stewardship of taxpayer funds, but we continue to call for a long-term solution, including a cap on HMO reserves and a “clawback” (a technical term that means to recoup funds) of the HMOs’ excess reserves.
• April 1, 2011: Minnesota’s HMOs release 2010 financial reports, showing huge profit increases and reserves totaling $2.5 billion. As budget proposals come out at the state capitol, thousands of Minnesotans face the prospect of losing their health care.
• THE ISSUE IN THE NEWS, March 26, 2011: Star Tribune Editorial.
• March 23, 2011: Just a week later, faced with mounting pressure to hold HMOs accountable, Governor Dayton issues an Executive Order calling for more transparency of public money sent to HMOs, competitive bidding for public health care programs, and for other HMOs to also return excess reserves to the state.
• THE ISSUE IN THE NEWS, March 19, 2011: [http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/118271824.html'>Star Tribune Editorial.
• March 16, 2011: UCare makes a voluntary $30 million contribution to the state, clearly recognizing that health plan reserves are in excess – something TakeAction Minnesota had been calling attention to for months; while we welcomed this one-time gift, we also called on the HMOs, Governor Dayton, and the legislature to work towards a permanent cap on reserves and clawback of excess funds.
• March 1, 2011: TakeAction Minnesota disrupts UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley’s lunchtime speech to the U of M’s Carlson School of Management, questioning the corporate health insurer on the $11 billion it is holding in reserves, and calling on UHG to provide full disclosure of its financial relationships with Minnesota’s public health care programs. Watch the action here.
• March 1, 2011: Members of TakeAction’s Health Care Team deliver letters to Medica and BlueCross BlueShield, asking that they cap their financial reserves and limit the salaries of their top executives. Meetings with these HMOs make it clear that they will not agree to do so.

Upcoming Events:

• Privacy Policy
• Legal Information
• Site Map
• Our Community Link
• Contact Us

©2011 TakeAction Minnesota, 705 Raymond Ave. #100, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114 | 651.641.6199