ABSTRACT
Minnesota has long been considered at "the forefront of state-based health reform." The Minnesota case is an important reminder that health care reform is, in the words of one local observer, "a journey and not a destination." In the fall of 1991 Minnesota politics was a microcosm of national politics. At the heart of the Minnesota reform is cost containment. Indeed, it is a measure of the times in general, and the political dynamics of Minnesota in particular, that Article I of the law deals with cost containment while the issue of access is taken up sixty pages and three articles later in the law. At the time of the 1992 debate, Minnesota was experiencing a rapid escalation in health care costs. It is riot surprising, then, that the legislative finding introducing Article I described the "devastating effect on the health and cost of living in Minnesota" due to the "staggering growth in health care costs."
