Health finance bill would prioritize compliance with federal ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is about to upend many facets of Medicaid coverage in the state, and the Legislature needs to pass bills to be in compliance with these changes. 

Sponsored by Rep. Robert Bierman (DFL-Apple Valley), the omnibus health finance bill, HF4466, would bring the state into compliance with many of these changes.

After the House Health Finance and Policy Committee approved a delete-all amendment on a split-voice vote and four other amendments failed down party lines, the committee approved the bill 14-8 Wednesday and sent it to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Federal changes the bill would codify under state law include:

• implementing new federally mandated work requirements for adults without children using Medicaid;
• establishing new six-month renewal requirements;
• establishing cost sharing requirements across departments;
• shortening retroactive coverage for adults without children from three months to one month.

House nonpartisan staff said the bill would save the state $15.9 million in this biennium and $136 million in the next biennium, primarily from cuts around the state’s expansion population, or adults without children.

[MORE: View the spreadsheet]

DFLers used amendments to try to soften the impact on Medicaid users, an effort Republicans resisted in failed votes.

“We’re talking about the big, ugly bill that came out of Republicans in Congress, and people talked a lot about how it was going to hurt people all over the country,” Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) said. “Here’s where the rubber hits the road.”

Liebling’s statement on the federal law was made during her argument for an amendment that would have established a provision to end all changes made by the state to comply with HR1 if those new federal requirements were changed by Congress down the line. “This basically says, when we don’t have to do this, we’re taking it back. We are doing this kicking and screaming because we are being forced to do so.”

Rep. Danny Nadeau (R-Rogers) argued that ending changes initiated to comply with the federal law could impact contracts and employment established under the changes. “Congress does a lot of things and there’s a lot of things that they do that we don’t like, but that’s kind of our relationship.”

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The following are bills that have been incorporated in part or in whole into the omnibus health finance bill:

• HF84 (Huot)
• HF85 (Huot)
• HF2689 (Reyer)
• HF3439 (Nadeau)
• HF3756 (Backer)
• HF3763 (Nadeau)
• HF3804 (Huot)
• HF4428 (Nadeau)
• HF4547 (Bierman)
• HF4712 (Schultz)
• HF4968 (Bierman)
• HF4969 (Bierman)