Sebelius tours Mayo Clinic; touts health care reform law

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says Minnesota will receive significant federal funding from the new health care law. Sebelius was in Rochester Thursday, touring the Mayo Clinic.

She commented on a recent report that said Minnesota would receive only a fraction of the $400 million allocated for Medicare payments to hospitals. She said while Minnesota may not receive much from that funding, the state will get millions of dollars for health care pilot projects.

"The innovation center, the medical home model which we just added Medicare to, are all much more arguably, significant financial incentives in the short term than is that re-allocation of a pot of money on the table," she said.

Sebelius also said she wanted to clear up a misconception about the new law and small business owners -- emphasizing that the law does not mandate that small business owners purchase health insurance.

"In fact, the way the health insurance future is written, 95 percent of small business owners will never come under that umbrella, and yet they will have a new marketplace and tax credits in order to participate," she said.

Sebelius met with Minnesota U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, and U.S. Reps. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Ron Kind of Wisconsin -- all four are Democrats.