Dear Friends,
On Monday of last week we passed the Minnesota Premium Security Plan (HF5) as another step towards addressing the MNsure disaster.
Allow me to give a little history. Prior to Obamacare, Minnesota had an insurance safety net program to cover individuals with high-risk or uninsurable health conditions through the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association (MCHA). MCHA operated this high-risk pool for over 40 years and brought stability to our individual health insurance market while guaranteeing much needed coverage for the sickest Minnesotans.
Because MCHA was also financially solvent, Minnesota's program served as an example to the rest of the country, demonstrating a way to provide health insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions in a compassionate and fiscally responsible way.
Under ObamaCare, our individual (private) health insurance market has decreased by 1/3 the size it was and is now in a death spiral of skyrocketing premiums and deductibles, with fewer provider networks, leaving many individuals unable to see their local doctor or deferring medically necessary health treatments because they cannot afford the high deductibles.
The Minnesota Premium Security Plan (HF5) passed last week will bring back a form of MCHA that will allow insurance companies to provide plans for people in these high-risk pools. This is also expected to reduce premiums by 17-18% for people purchasing plans on the individual market.
The Premium Security Plan would be administered by MCHA and will be funded using existing revenue sources.
With HF5, the House Republicans are keeping our promise to pass additional reforms that build on the relief and initial reform measure we passed earlier this year. I look forward to more essential market reforms being passed, but this was another step in the right direction.
-Glenn