ROCHESTER, Minn.- Gov. Tim Walz is rolling out a budget for One Minnesota, which aims to give quality, individualized healthcare that people can actually afford.
On Monday he sat at a round table to hear stories from Southern Minnesota residents about why they need more affordable health care. Deborah Mills is a dairy farmer.
She tells KIMT she has heard of other farmers paying upwards of $30,000 in annual premiums a year for individual health care.
“When you have that kind of premium and a large deductible on top of it, you're not getting health care...you have catastrophic care is what you have."
Governor Walz’s budget includes funding to extend low-cost coverage to farmers, business owners, and entrepreneurs. He says he realizes the need is real.
“This is real, its not magically going to fix itself when there are no alternatives being proposed other than, well we'll just shift a few million dollars to insurance companies and see if they'll maybe lower the price. It doesn't work that way that's why it's important for us to hear these stories to then articulate why we're coming up with these plans."
For more information on One Minnesota click here.