Welcome  to  the  Public  health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. Universal  health  care  and  access  to  health are  key  issues  in  the  Minnesota  gubernatorial  election. What  should  voters  know  before  going  to  the  polls, We  asked  Lynn  Bluett, a  health  policy  professor  at  the  University  of  Minnesota. This  is  one  of  the  big  hot  topic  issues in  the  state  governors  race. And  currently,  there  are  about 7.4%  of  Minnesotans  don't have  any  health  insurance  coverage. Many  people  think  that  Minnesota  is  a  place  where we  could  actually  achieve  universal  coverage. Because  we  have  such  a  low  rate, it's  the  lowest  rate  in  the  country. There  are  a  couple  different  plans  to  achieve  that, To  get  people  to  buy  into  private  health  insurance, to  provide  state  subsidies  for  low  income  populations, to  provide  access  to  affordable  health  care. And  citizens  ought  to  pay attention  to  what  the  candidates  are  saying. While  Minnesota  has  the  lowest  rate  of  uninsured, Bluett  says  her  studies  indicate  that  if health  insurance  was  provided  to  all  Minnesotans, overall  healthcare  costs  would  decline. We've  done  a  study  in  the  state  of  Minnesota  where  we looked  at  the  impact  of  Minnesota  care, expanding  Minnesota  care  and  what  we  found  it  had a  significant  impact  on  hospitals,  charity  care. As  more  people  presented  with  coverage, their  levels  of  free  care  went  down. And  we  showed  a  significant  impact of  Minnesota  care  to  the  hospitals. Bottom  line,  we  think  coverage  does  save  hospitals  money. It  saves  consumers  money, and  it  keeps  people  healthy  for  the  public  health  moment. I'm  John  Finnegan.