Paul Thissen: Innovation in Action

Minn. To Cover Patients Hit By Pawlenty Budget Cut

Nov 6, 2009 6:15 pm US/Central
MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) The Minnesota Department of Human Services outlined a plan Friday to maintain health insurance for more than 30,000 low-income adults whose coverage runs out March 1, by moving them from one state program into another.

Commissioner Cal Ludeman said the agency will automatically transfer 28,000 people from the General Assistance Medical Care program into MinnesotaCare, a bigger subsidized plan for the working poor. Another 8,000 GAMC enrollees already are switching or dropping coverage.
The plan aims to catch those who otherwise would have become uninsured after Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty eliminated nearly $400 million in funding for GAMC as part of a decit  earlier this year. The future of the program’s patients will be one of the top issues in next year’s legislative session, starting in February.

“I was not going to simply be left in a position of having no coverage for these people for any period of time,” Ludeman said.

Democrats said it would be diffcult for the poorest, most vulnerable residents to handle a program that requires premiums and paperwork to stay enrolled. GAMC covers 36,000 very low-income adults — some homeless, others with incomes as low as a couple thousand dollars a year. MinnesotaCare is insurance for 125,000 working poor who pay monthly premiums on a sliding scale.

“Within six months, tens of thousands more Minnesotans will be uninsured at great cost to all of us,” said Rep. Paul Thissen, one of a dozen Democrats running for governor.

To read the full article, click here.

Statement from Rep. Thissen on the Governor’s Proposed Constitutional Amendment

For Immediate Release
November 5, 2009

Contact: Gia Vitali (612) 386-1879

Statement from Rep. Thissen on the Governor’s Proposed Constitutional Amendment

Governor Pawlenty is proposing that we govern the state by looking in the rearview mirror instead of looking to the future. This is a simplistic approach to tackling Minnesota’s challenges coming from a governor who has taken little interest in actually managing the state budget to meet our needs.

Under his watch the number of political appointees in state agencies has grown, interfering with our ability to transform how government services are delivered in the state. He has shifted over $2 billion onto local property tax payers and he has repeatedly proposed funding programs by putting the cost on the state’s credit card.

I’m running for governor because we need someone who will take the responsibility of managing the state budget seriously.

Rep. Thissen visits BP Chamber

State Rep. Paul Thissen was a the featured guest during the Blooming Prairie Chamber of Commerce’s noon meeting Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the city center.

The agenda began with a recap of Blooming Prairie Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Becky Noble’s trip in September to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives (MCCE) fall conference in Nisswa…

…After the meeting special guest Rep. Paul Thissen addressed the group.

He is running for Governor in 2010 and has strong roots in Blooming Prairie.

Thissen’s father, Frank, lived on a farm west of Blooming Prairie and still keeps up with the happenings in town.

The Representative has spent a lot of time in town and was happy to back.

In the last ten months of his campaign he has traveled to 74 counties in the state and has seen first hand the challenges the cities have been facing. He has many ideas about how to keep communities thriving.

Thissen discussed the need to invest in infrastructure. Some important points he made included the need for rural transit and road maintenance. This would keep people in their homes and help them continue to get their needs taken care of.

Thissen told the Chamber that transportaion is a top priority.

He went on to discuss many of his priorities and goals. The goals he had for keeping people in their homes, keeping young people in the small communities, balancing taxes, economic development in Greater Minnesota and agriculture and energy policy.

“We need to rely on answers already out there and share in the decision making,” Rep. Thissen said.

Thissen fielded questions from the chamber following his speech.

At 3:30, he was at the Bakery to talk to the community and answer even more questions.

To read the full article, click here.

Karaoke for a Cause

The St. Paul nonprofit Urban Embassy added great fun to the campaign this weekend when it required each candidate to sing a karoake song before addressing the audience at its annual Candidate Karaoke event.

First, it was for a great cause: Urban Embassy aims to educate and mobilize minority and under-represented voters through community meetings and targeted legislation, and has done a lot of important work since its founding.
Second, it was great to have the candidates relax and have some fun, and vary from the typical stump speech.

Even though Paul has a beautiful voice and was the lead role in some of his high school musicals, he still needs to be prodded to sing publicly, so I was thrilled to be able to make him sing this weekend! We sang a duet version of Prince’s “1999″ – one of our favorite artists, and a Minnesotan to boot, of course!

We’re having a blast on the campaign trail and look forward to seeing you at an event soon. To check out where we will be next, visit our events section.

I hope everybody has a great week!

-Karen

P.S. There is another embarrassing photo after the break.

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Another Face in the Crowd?

Discovery Politics / November 2, 2009

Representative Paul Thissen carries pedigrees from Harvard and Chicago Law, but the Democrat from Minneapolis is hitting the streets and spreading his grassroots message in a battle for the DFL endorsement. Thissen is hardly the front-runner for the endorsement, but he makes a good case for his qualifications. As chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee in the State House, Thissen can boast the best record in the race when it comes to health care issues. It may just be divine providence for him that healthcare is undoubtedly the issue on the forefront of political minds.

It can be said that Paul Thissen has chosen to lead by example in his life, whether earning honors at Harvard, or heading the pro-bono department as a partner at Briggs and Morgan law firm.

To read the rest, click here.