State Highlights: Minn. Gov. Won’t Veto High-Premium-Relief Plan; Iowa Lawmakers’ Insurance Under Fire

Pioneer Press: Mark Dayton To Let Rescue Plan For Health Insurance Market Become Law 
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton will allow a rescue plan for the state’s individual insurance market to become law despite having “serious concerns” about how Republican lawmakers wrote the bill. The program, called “reinsurance,” will absorb up to $271 million per year in expensive medical claims over the next two years. Those costs would ordinarily have to be paid for by insurers and passed on to their customers in the form of higher premiums. Premiums in the individual market could be lower by 20 percent in 2018 than they would be without reinsurance, the state Department of Commerce estimated. (Montgomery, 4/3)

Minnesota Public Radio: Dayton: I Won’t Block Health Insurer Relief Package
The DFL governor says he wanted more promises from health insurance companies that the money wouldn’t just go to their bottom lines, but rather would be used to buy down premiums and expand coverage options. He didn’t get those guarantees but said the need to shore up the individual insurance market led to his decision. (Bakst, 4/3)

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Dayton Won't Block $542M For Insurance Companies, But Withholds Signature
Republican lawmakers called the measure a necessary second step toward strengthening an individual market that has seen insurance companies leave and premiums rise by an average 50 percent or more in recent years. Together with the $326 million premium relief bill approved earlier this year, the state is poised to spend $868 million over the next two years to help the 190,000 people who buy insurance on the individual market. (Golden, 4/3)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Lawmakers Push Back Over Their Cheap State Insurance
Iowa lawmakers who have been taking fire for paying as little as $20 a month in state health insurance premiums are pushing back in their hometowns against the bad press. Videos taken by people who attended several town hall meetings show Iowans asking lawmakers not only to fix their cheap rates through pending legislation but to collectively reimburse the roughly $435,000 that lawmakers underpaid since January 2016. The Register reported in February that more than 100 Iowa lawmakers were paying hundreds of dollars less than they should for their state-provided health insurance — a potential violation of state law. (Clayworth, 4/3)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Can Pa. Find A Way Out For Thousands Of Mentally Ill Inmates Languishing In County Jails?
Forty percent of Philadelphia inmates are on psychotropic medications; 17 percent have what’s considered a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. At the state level, 29 percent of inmates have a mental illness. People with mental illness also stay longer in jail, and are more likely to return. So, on Tuesday, state officials will announce a multiyear initiative aimed at safely reducing the number of people with mental illness in Pennsylvania jails -- a problem that has so far been intractable in the face of criminal-justice reform efforts. (Melamed, 4/3)

NJ Spotlight: Building A Secure Database For Patients’ End-Of-Life Plans 
New Jersey could soon join a handful of states that use electronic registries to help ensure healthcare providers treat patients according to their wishes when it comes to end-of-life care — instead of automatically using all available medical technology to keep them alive. State Health Commissioner Cathleen Bennett joined officials from the New Jersey Hospital Association on Friday to unveil the new electronic Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) initiative that they hope will engage more patients and make their information far more accessible to those providing medical care. (Stainton, 4/3)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: St. Charles County Excels At Healthy Living, National Survey Says 
For the eighth consecutive year, St. Charles County ranks at the top of Missouri’s “Healthiest Counties” list. The county finished first in Missouri in the category of "health factors" and second in the state for “health outcomes. "The report, which looks at 115 Missouri counties, was released by the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (Holleman, 4/3)

The Texas Tribune: Houston Foster Child Death Spurs Concerns Over Placement Shortages
As Texas Department of Family and Protective Services officials continue investigating the death of a girl who escaped a Child Protective Services office, advocates and legislators are grappling with the worst-case scenario of the state's shortage of homes for abused and neglected children. (Evans, 4/3)

The Tampa Bay Times: Senate Clears Medical Marijuana Bill, Expanding Grower Licenses
State senators on Monday gave their first approval to a major overhaul of their medical marijuana legislation. (Austen, 4/3)

Pioneer Press: $75 Million Neuroscience Center Opens On Phalen Boulevard, St. Paul's 'Medical Corridor'
Inside the 130,000-square-foot facility, video cameras linked to two underwater treadmills record and analyze the gait of stroke victims in a climate-controlled therapy pool. A floor below, 16 privately-funded researchers — surrounded by beakers, microscopes and hypersensitive digital scales — search for cures to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. A floor above, images displayed on large flat-screen wall monitors will show patients the interior of their own tumors, spines and frontal lobes, a visual road map to complicated medical conditions. Clinical trials, physical rehab, patient diagnosis and lab work will all happen in the same building. (Melo, 4/3)