LETTER: Health insurance reform based on crop insurance subsidies?

Published 7:44 am Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I ask Minnesota to focus on the $471 million in federal tax dollars secured by our Congressional delegation and used to reduce crop insurance premiums on the 2008 crop. This federal subsidy paid 56 percent of the crop insurance premium on crops grown by Minnesota farmers and averaged $28.42 and acre. So if the average crop mix were grown on 160 acres, the Minnesota farmer received $4,547. Or if he farmed 1,600 acres, his premium was reduced by $45,470 dollars. Which means, if we treated uninsured families in Minnesota the same way Congress treats 160 acres of Minnesota crops, we could give more than 103,000 Minnesota families, $4,547 dollars annually to buy health insurance.

So as a citizen’s lobbyist, I ask you to bring these numbers to the health care debate, now raging in Minnesota. So the political discussions, at congressional forums, county fairs and the “Great Minnesota Get Together,” can be productive for the state’s uninsured!

Alan Roebke

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