St. Paul, Minn. – Tonight on a vote of 73-54, largely along partisan lines, the Minnesota House passed a bill (SF 1) creating a relief subsidy program aimed to address increasing health insurance premiums in the individual market. Under the plan, policyholders may not see relief until 2018, and it also contains many complex health insurance policy changes.
“Many Minnesota families are facing a crisis as they try to pay for health insurance in the individual market,” said Clark Johnson (DFL-North Mankato). “They need immediate relief. Governor Dayton and the House DFL have presented a plan that will provide immediate help to those families. Unfortunately, the House majority has insisted on a plan that will delay help to those families for many months, maybe even a year. We need to do better and we need to do it now.”
The program created by SF 1 would include income limits, includes controversial stop loss attachments, and allows HMOs to be operated by for-profit entities. In addition to not giving relief to Minnesotans until 2018, the plan would be administered by a new bureaucratic entity at a hefty price tag: $20 million.
Gov. Mark Dayton’s plan is more streamlined, and would get a 25 percent rebate to the approximately 125,000 affected Minnesotans by March. An amendment to substitute this proposal into the bill was shot-down by the GOP majority. While Rep. Johnson is open to reforms, he thinks substantial policy changes need to be given more thorough consideration by the legislature.
The bill now goes to a Conference Committee where differences with the Senate version will be considered.
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