Pawlenty Vows to Limit Minnesota's Role in Federal Health Care Overhaul

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday that he will do everything he can to keep Minnesota from participating in the federal health care overhaul during his final four months in office.

The likely Republican presidential candidate said the health care law, one of President Barack Obama's signature initiatives, is "a misguided piece of legislation" that puts states on the wrong path and will drive up costs. By taking concrete steps to reject some dollars tied to the law, Pawlenty is acting on his frequent criticism of the overhaul.

"Anything that I can do to slow down, limit or negate Obamacare, I'm going to try to do it within reason," Pawlenty said after a veterans event in St. Paul.

Pawlenty issued an executive order Tuesday directing Minnesota state agencies to decline "discretionary" involvement with the federal law "unless otherwise required by law or approved by the Governor's office." He said his office will determine whether federal funding would support state initiatives or create "new encroachments by the federal government."

The order came a day after Pawlenty quashed a state Health Department application for a $850,000 federal sex education grant. He did sign off on a separate application for $505,000 in abstinence-only funding, which would require the state to put up $379,000 in matching money if it comes through. The sex education grant requires no state match.

Last year, GOP governors including Alaska's Sarah Palin and South Carolina's Mark Sanford declined portions of the federal stimulus package. Pawlenty and other GOP governors have harshly criticized the health care law and more than a dozen state attorneys general have sued to overturn it. But Minnesota's top lawyer, Democrat Lori Swanson, backs the federal government in the lawsuit.

Pawlenty already had declined to participate in an early expansion of Medicaid for poor adults, which would have brought more than $1 billion to the state but required hundreds of millions in matching money.

The new wrinkle comes as Pawlenty mulls whether to accept Minnesota's share of $16 billion in Medicaid help for states. Governors are required to sign off before their states can get the money. Pawlenty hasn't announced a decision but said Tuesday he determined that taking the cash, about $240 million, wouldn't commit the state to current levels of health care spending beyond June. He must decide by mid-September. That money is not part of the health care law.

Minnesota's budget is technically balanced through June 2011, but the state faces a projected shortfall approaching $6 billion after that.

Democrats at home were dismayed with Pawlenty's latest move. State Rep. Erin Murphy said the federal law could bring Minnesota close to universal health care coverage and reduce costs by changing the way medical services are paid for. She said Pawlenty is focusing on his political ambition, not on his state.

"He's so busy looking forward it feels like he's digging a hole for us that we are going to struggle to get out of as he moves on," said Murphy, DFL-St. Paul.

Pawlenty said he won't pull grant applications that have already been submitted or turn down federal cash in categories that fit with the direction that Minnesota has taken in health care policy. He added that his successor could go after some of the rejected money "if that's consistent with what they think is wise."

Pawlenty said he can't keep Minnesota from participating in the health care law when it is fully implemented in 2014, but he hopes that won't happen.

"We're not going to go to that point easily and without protest and without trying to change it," he said.

Pawlenty is stepping down when his second term as governor ends in January. He has said he will announce his future plans early next year.