Three weeks to go in the legislative session, and the big fight is still over health care. KARE TV had a story about church leaders asking people on Sunday to sign post cards to legislative leaders urging them not to cut people off of MinnesotaCare. MPR's Lorna Benson has a story looking at some of the people who have already been cut from MinnesotaCare:

Kathy Auringer...lives in Eagle Lake, a small town in southern Minnesota just east of Mankato. Auringer was dumped from MinnesotaCare after it was scaled back two years ago because she exceeded the program's income limits. She briefly signed up for another state sponsored health plan called Minnesota Comprehensive. But she had to drop it after a few months because she couldn't afford it.

She now has no health coverage. Auringer says it was a hard decision to make because she's a cancer survivor.

"I'm really taking a chance. Yeah, there's no question about that," says Auringer. "I should really have my preventive visits and stuff, but I'm not even gonna do that."

Auringer is 58. She figures she probably will go without health insurance for seven more years until she can qualify for Medicare at age 65. Auringer doesn't understand the logic behind cuts to MinnesotaCare.

"I think it is just absolutely disgusting," she says. "These guys just sit there and cut and cut and cut. They have no clue what people are living in down here."

The Senate is expected to vote on its health budget bill Monday. It adds people to MinnesotaCare rather than cutting as Gov. Pawlenty and the House have proposed. The Senate is still working on a tax bill to raise the money to pay for its spending bills, but health care is one area that many think may drag negotiations beyond the May 23 deadline for adjournment.

Both Twin Cities papers had stories over the weekend about the looming deadline and the growing sense the session might head into OT again. There doesn't seem to be much of an impetus for the Senate DFL to cave anytime soon. But a lot can happen at the Capitol in three weeks. Some of the DFL rhetoric about the House health and human services budget was particularly sharp as noted by MPR's Tom Scheck:

Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, says private health insurance is rising at a faster rate [than state health programs]. He says MinnesotaCare cuts and payment cuts to hospitals would be a "double whammy" on the state's hospitals. He says those cut will still end up in the hospital, but only when they're really sick. "I can tell you that if we eliminate 30,000 people from the rolls, they're not going to go away. They're still going to be living in the state of Minnesota, they'll still be going to the hospital and they'll still be treated," Huntley said.

Rep. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, called the package a "piece of crap."

"There's no reason for anybody to vote for this bill," she said near the end of a floor debate that lasted more than five-and-a-half hours. "It's setting Minnesota back. It's putting Minnesota into the race to the bottom."

The governor and House GOP leaders say the state has to rein in the double-digit growth of the health care budget.

Finally, if you haven't noticed yet it's sweeps month in the TV business. That's the time TV stations go all out to increase their ratings because ad rates will be based on how many people are watching this month. One of the more unusual news stories will be on KSTP TV. It follows one of the station's reporters as she deals with cancer. This is from the AP:

KSTP-TV reporter Kristin Stinar is fighting ovarian cancer, the station reported Sunday night.

The station said she was taking her fight public because ovarian cancer is elusive, hard-to-diagnose and deadly for far too many women.

Stinar, 36, the station's lead investigative reporter, noticed symptoms in February. She had a lack of appetite and her stomach was bloated.

"I just thought it was stress, or I wasn't eating properly, or not working out enough or something. I just brushed it off, I wish I hadn't," she said.

When the pain became too much, she went to a doctor who found a tumor 13 centimeters across, the size of a grapefruit, near her right ovary. Tests after surgery determined it was cancerous.

Just to keep you watching, Sunday's report did not give details about her prognosis or what stage the cancer was. For that you have to watch Monday. We certainly wish her the best, but shudder slightly to think what kind of stories this could result in during the next sweeps period. How much detail do we need to know about our anchorpeople's medical conditions?