Payback Time

Teddy Maki

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More About

• Children's Defense Fund
• Tom Ehrlichmann
• Kathleen Henry
• Government Spending
• Federal Budget

There's no doubt, says Jim Koppel, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Children's Defense Fund, that the federal money would help the state insure more children. But, he adds, there are still ways in which Minnesota can move forward on its own. "We led and we got punished for it and that makes it difficult now to say, Let's charge forward," he says. "But that's what we need to do. Our system is still too complicated and expensive and it's leaving people out. If we combined our programs into one, we could lower costs and take advantage of the progress we've already made."