Health care costs have been going through the roof in Minnesota, and many people can’t afford it.

In this state, 350,000 people are currently uninsured and at least 400,000 more are considered to be under-insured. This means they avoid seeking medical attention on some occasions because of the high cost of copays and deductibles. It’s an unfortunate fact that our health care system was far too expensive before Obamacare and after Obamacare.

When compared to other countries, the United States spends twice as much per person on health care than countries like Canada and France, while having worse health results. There needs to be a change in our healthcare system to lower costs and guarantee healthcare access to everyone.

That’s why I support the Minnesota Health Plan, a bill currently in the house and senate. The Minnesota Health Plan would instate a single payer healthcare system; meaning that all hospitals and clinics would remain private enterprises, but all payments would come from the state government. This would save an enormous amount of money on administrative waste. Currently, the overhead for our medical system is about 20 percent because of the role of insurance companies. The overhead for Medicare is currently about 2 percent.

Minnesota can and must do better. I encourage you to ask your representatives to support the bill.

Alex Orlowski

Rochester