Dear Neighbors,
It's been a busy week in St. Paul beginning with the Governor's State of the State address and ending with enacting the health care premium relief bill into law. I hope you will join me in wishing Governor Dayton the best as he fights his battle with cancer.
Health Care Relief Bill Signed by Governor
This has been the culmination of weeks of work to deliver health care premium relief along with key reforms that Minnesotans need. In total, the relief package totaling almost $327 million will be taken from the budget reserves. Here is a quick overview of the bill that passed the House and Senate and was signed by Governor Dayton late on Thursday.
- $311,945,000.00 in premium relief will go to Minnesotans who purchased health care in the individual market.
- Anyone who purchased coverage from the individual market will receive a 25 percent discount on their premium invoices.
- $15 million will go to guaranteeing continuity-of-care for those currently undergoing life-saving treatment for an extra 120 days.
Reforms were also included to increase access and choices to begin to avoid out-of-control premium increases happening again. These are the first set of reforms with many more proposals for reform to come.
- Increase transparency by requiring the publishing of preliminary rate filings within 10 days of receiving them. This will make sure we won’t be blindsided again by huge rate increases so late in the year. If this requirement had been in place, the Legislature could have taken action to improve the 2017 market.
- Improve Access by dropping the requirement that only non-profit HMOs to operate in Minnesota. This will allow for more choices in Minnesota’s market. This bill also makes it easier for small businesses to offer affordable plans by making changes to stop loss requirements for small businesses.
- End to surprise billing from health care providers. Surprise billing is when an in-network provider uses an out-of-center provider, such as an anesthesiologist or lab for tests, and bills the patient for out-of-network cost.
Clearing up Confusion
I have heard from a number of my constituents who are concerned about changes coming to health care both in Minnesota and Washington, D.C.
First, the only immediate changes to health care in Minnesota are the reforms described above. These are all reforms to improve customer experience and improve access for all Minnesotans and are not taking away care or options to anyone in the state. These reforms are all independent of what is or what will happen at the Federal level.
Second, discussions going on in D.C. have been focused on finding ways to drive down the costs of health care and bringing market-based reforms to health care. Speaker of the House of Representatives has outlined his plan here.
The discussions in D.C. are going on separately from our work here in Minnesota and we cannot wait for the Federal Government to “fix” the problem as that is exactly what got us in the position we are currently in. I will be hard at work with my colleagues of both parties to find solutions to make health care more affordable in Minnesota.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at 651-296-5513 or emailing me at rep.mark.uglem@house.mn.
Thank you and have a great weekend,
Mark