David Minge: “The State of Minnesota, like several other Midwestern States and the State of Washington, has had a relatively efficient…”

“The State of Minnesota, like several other Midwestern States and the State of Washington, has had a relatively efficient low-cost health care delivery system for many years. When the Medicare program was created, I understand that they looked at the cost of health care for the average citizen or senior citizen in the county in which the person resided and said, if you would like to have a managed care program, we will provide a sum of money monthly to the firm that is providing managed care coverage for your health care. So these areas of the Midwest or Washington started out at a relatively low monthly rate, whereas other areas of this country that did not have a low-cost, efficient delivery system, effective system for health care, had a high monthly average rate that seniors were paying for health care, and they were then offered the opportunity to go into a managed care program where the companies had this high, they call it AAPCC rate, as I understand it.”