Minnesota's legislative session left rural healthcare systems exposed

Minnesota's legislative session left rural healthcare systems exposed

As the 2026 Minnesota legislative session concludes, Capitol leaders are framing the outcome as a model of bipartisan compromise and fiscal discipline, pointing to a major bonding bill and an agreement to shore up the state’s healthcare safety net. But from the perspective of the 76 counties of Greater Minnesota, the session told a very different story. Lawmakers did not deliver equity. Instead, they reinforced a geographic double standard, leav…

HCMC bailout, bonding bill and immigration fight close out session

A legislative session that began with talk of federal immigration enforcement, gun control and social services fraud ended with an exceedingly condensed discussion of hospital finances and repairing publicly owned buildings. Lawmakers passed bills on the last day of session that had been broadly agreed to in a budget deal announced May 13 between Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders. But on a host of measures, including a life raft for Hennepin…

What’s Behind Minnesota’s Shifting Hospital Systems?

The Minnesota Hospital Association says we have a problem. More than 30 nonprofit hospitals in the state are out of cash to make payroll. The Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) was trending toward that scary position recently. Leadership had claimed all of this year that the state’s flagship safety-net hospital would close in June if it did not receive financial assistance from the Minnesota Legislature. That changed Sunday night. The state’s…