Daily Digest: More on the health care bill

Good morning and welcome to Monday, the start of another work week. It appears we've successfully sprung forward. Here's the Digest.

1. Minnesota stands to lose $80 million in public health funding over the next five years under the new congressional Republican health care bill, and that's not counting the impact it would have on people buying health insurance and getting insurance through Medicaid. The American Health Care Act would cut $1 billion annually from the nation’s public health system, money that is the core source of funding for childhood immunization programs, lead poisoning prevention and infectious disease monitoring,. “This would be a huge hit for us at the state level,” said Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger. “This would be just one further stress on an already weakened system.” (Star Tribune)

2. Minnesota lawmakers are facing an April 1 deadline to try to stabilize the state's private health insurance market. There are three main options in play. They all cost money, and they're all likely to lower premiums. Less than 5 percent of Minnesotans get their health insurance through the state’s individual insurance market, but those roughly 190,000 people have been through a lot in recent years. Premiums have skyrocketed even as options have narrowed, and there’s a very real chance that the market could go away altogether. (Pioneer Press)

3. The law authorizing liquor stores to open on Sundays doesn't take effect until July 1, but one Minneapolis store owner opened his doors yesterday in defiance of the letter of the law. Owner Jim Surdyk said he decided to staff Sundays as soon as he saw the governor sign the legislation. "Well, the governor signed the bill. The legislature wanted to have us open," said Surdyk. "Why send more tax dollars to Wisconsin?" Surdyk said he plans to continue opening on Sundays. A city licensing official says Surdyk will be fined and his license will be reviewed. (MPR News)

4. State legislators have added hundreds of exceptions to the public disclosure law, raising the number of secrecy provisions to at least 660. More recently, legislators blocked the public from seeing virtually all video from police body cameras, a new technology pitched as a way to help hold police accountable for their conduct. They are also considering an array of new proposals this year, including measures that could restrict access to financial records of government contractors and prevent the public from reviewing tax court proceedings. (Star Tribune)

5. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson says she continues to review the president's revised travel ban order and has yet to decide whether to join other states in filing a new complaint against it. On Monday, Washington, Oregon, New York and Massachusetts are expected to file a new complaint challenging the revised travel ban. Hawaii also launched its own lawsuit. (MPR News)

6. Republican U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said he can’t say how many people would lose coverage under the new health care legislation -- and that it will be “up to people” to decide whether they want to purchase coverage. In an interview on CBS News Sunday Ryan said. “People are going to do what they want to do with their lives because we believe in individual freedom in this country.” He added, “So the question is: Are we providing a system where people have access to health insurance if they choose to do so? And the answer is yes. But are we going to have some nice-looking spreadsheet that says, ‘We, the government of the American—the United States, are going to make people buy something and therefore they’re all going to buy it’? No.” (CBS News)

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