Minnesota health care task force should step up, not retreat

The e-mail sent this week to members of Minnesota's newly reconvened bipartisan health care financing task force was as sudden as it was puzzling.

Due to the "fluid situation" at the federal level, the task force's 29 members are not in position to make additional recommendations, read the missive late Tuesday afternoon from state Department of Human Services Commissioner Emily Johnson Piper and task force co-chair Sahra Noor. Because of that, Piper and Noor recommended suspending further meetings "unless there are objections."

Consider this an objection — and a strong one. The election of Donald Trump has indeed created massive uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But that's precisely why the task force should not only keep meeting, but consider its mission — devising reforms to ensure affordable care in Minnesota — more important than ever.

The ACA, passed in 2010, drove and funded a historic expansion of coverage through two key strategies: expanding the Medicaid public assistance program and providing subsidies to those who buy private insurance on their own instead of through an employer. It also banned insurers from denying coverage to those with preexisting medical conditions.

It's unclear whether these provisions will survive in the Trump administration. The president-elect repeatedly put the ACA in his campaign rhetoric cross hairs. He also has Republican majorities in a Congress whose leaders have made repealing the ACA a priority.

Republican plans to replace the law have been long on rhetoric and short on details. But it's likely the responsibility of ensuring access to care for those now relying on the ACA will shift to states. Minnesota needs to prepare for that, not scramble for cover.

Task force members include industry experts, consumer advocates and respected GOP and DFL leaders. Their work is certainly more difficult because it must include contingency plans for a various federal scenarios. But that simply means it's time to double down, not back away.