Friends,
Happy St. Patrick's Day! This Friday we celebrate St. Patrick's Day where everyone else wishes they were Irish too. I hope you celebrate safely and have a great weekend. Here's my weekly update from the Capitol.
Bipartisan Health Insurance Reform Passes House
The Minnesota Premium Security Plan (HF5), which establishes a state-based reinsurance program, passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 78-53. This program is designed to stabilize and reduce premiums by mitigating the impact of high-risk individuals, or those who are the most sick, on the individual health insurance market. According to Minnesota Management and Budget, the proposal is estimated to reduce premiums by 17-18 percent.
Obamacare and MNsure devastated the health insurance market in Minnesota, which was one of the best in the nation. The Minnesota Premium Security Plan is part of the process in fixing the damaged caused by those programs. We have more work to do to actually drive down the costs of health care but first we must stabilize the health insurance market. This bill will do that by ensuring those who need care the most have access while it also is expected to reduce premiums.
Prior to Obamacare, Minnesota had a health insurance safety net program and it was a model for the nation. Today, Minnesota’s individual insurance market is a third as large and twice as sick as it was before Obamacare.
Making real reform to health care in Minnesota began with us enacting premium relief and opening the market up to more providers with SF1. The Minnesota Premium Security Plan is step two and will help to stabilize the individual market while it also is expected to lower premiums. The next step is to bring further reforms to put downward pressure on health care costs.
Bill to Fix Property Tax Classification
Last week a bill I am carrying to reclassify land held under the Conservation Reserve Program, a program where the land owner agrees to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality, as agricultural land for property tax purposes was heard in the tax committee. This is a common sense change that will help small family farms across the state. The bill was laid over for inclusion into the tax omnibus bill. A few pictures from that hearing are included below.
Teacher Retention Reform Passes House
As Minnesotans, we want to give schools the power to keep the best teachers in the classroom. “Last In, First Out” puts new teachers on the chopping block, even if they are excellent teachers.
House File 1478, a bill to eliminate Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) as the default requirement for how school districts and unions handle unrequested leaves of absence, passed the House this Thursday on a bipartisan vote 71 –59. Currently, state law sets LIFO as the default for handling unrequested leaves of absences, which essentially makes it so that LIFO is the unrequested leave of absence policy for most school districts in Minnesota.
This legislation simply removes the default position so school districts may have the ability to negotiate new criteria other than simply longevity when making personnel decisions.
Those who teach our students should be judged by more than just how long they have been at a school. Performance of the teacher should be taken into account. We cannot have young, good, and talented teachers run out of the profession due to lack of seniority. I hope the Senate takes up this bill and that Governor Dayton will sign this compromise bill.
Essay Contest
Don’t forget to have your school-aged children enter the Capitol restoration essay contest. Visit the website to learn more!
If you have any other questions on any of my bills or anything else going on at the legislature, please reach out to my office at (651) 296-8872. You can also reach me via email at rep.bob.loonan@house.mn.
Have a great weekend,
Bob