Roseau, MINN— Representative Dan Fabian (R-Roseau) released the following statement regarding Thursday's report from the nonpartisan Legislative Auditor that improper payments to ineligible MNsure public program enrollees have resulted in between $115 and $271 million in wasted taxpayer money.
"Folks in Northwest Minnesota are already facing skyrocketing insurance premiums, and now to learn MNsure has made hundreds of millions in overpayments is both astonishing and unacceptable. Our health care exchange continues to fail Minnesotans and fall far short of its promises.
Last session House Republicans passed legislation to improve public program eligibility verification that was estimated to save $300 million, and now it's clear that this kind of common sense reform must be implemented in the legislature to protect taxpayers. State leaders on both sides of the aisle must commit to fix the continuing problem that is MNsure."
OLA arrived at its data by sampling cases from early 2015, finding errors in 38 percent of those cases for people who enrolled in public programs through the exchange. Of those 38 percent, three-quarters did not qualify for any public program at all.
In all, more than 80,000 Minnesotans enrolled in a public program for which they were not eligible.
In 2015, House Republicans passed legislation to improve public program eligibility verification to prevent abuse and overpayments like this, and it was estimated to save $300 million. Unfortunately, those savings were disputed by Governor Dayton's Administration and Senate Democrats.
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