On April 28, the Minnesota House of Representatives approved legislation that focuses on increasing access and affordability of child care and health care in Minnesota, addresses the waste and abuse occurring in our public assistance programs – and puts an end to MNsure.
To date, Minnesota has wasted $300 million on MNsure. Since its implementation, health insurance premium costs have skyrocketed, while hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans have lost their preferred health plans, were placed on insurance they did not want, or were blocked from enrollment.
In short, MNsure has been a disaster and it is not working. A provision in this bill would allow MNsure to obtain a federal waiver, fully repeal the state exchange, and begin transitioning its customers onto the federal health exchange beginning with 2017 enrollments.
Earlier this year it was discovered that a number of Minnesota residents unknowingly had liens placed on their property after signing up for health insurance through MNsure. MNsure gave them only one option – Medical Assistance – so the residents took it. Later they discovered that their insurance would be paid for through liens on their estate after they had died. Another initiative in this bill would right this wrong by requiring the reimbursement to the estate of any Medical Assistance recipient aged 55 to 64 who received services, other than institutionalization, retroactive to January 1, 2014.
The proposal also repeals daycare unionization authority and includes a number reforms from the Select Committee on Affordable Child Care which take the first steps toward seriously addressing access to quality, affordable childcare.
The health bill also tackles Medical Assistance program fraud. Taking a sample from January to May 2015, the non-partisan Office of the Legislative Auditor analyzed 157 cases where people utilized MNsure to join either Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare. The OLA found that in 59 of those cases – 38 percent – the residents were not qualified for the coverage they were receiving. 44 of them shouldn't have qualified for any coverage at all.
Projected over all who enrolled in that timeframe, auditors estimate between 81,000 and 132,000 residents were either ineligible or placed in the wrong health care program, costing Minnesota's taxpayers between $115 million and $271 million.
Under this legislation, the Department of Human Services would fully implement the legislative auditor’s recommendations on how to fix this continued waste. Once adopted, it must respond quarterly to the legislature on case reports as well as financial savings. The money saved would then be deposited into a special “5% Campaign” account, which would give raises up to five percent to those who work with the disabled and vulnerable adults.
Finally, the health legislation includes my bill that better funds organizations that help women in crisis, along with their children. It would ensure that Minnesota's Title X revenue would only be allocated to family planning organizations that do not perform abortions.
The comprehensive health proposal was approved by a 72 to 57 vote, and now heads to the Minnesota Senate for further debate.
As always, I am interested in your feedback. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail at Rep.Kathy.Lohmer@House.MN or contact my office at 651-296-4244. You can also send mail to my office address: 501 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.