ST. PAUL – Rep. Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, today revealed a plan to dismantle MNsure – the state-based health insurance exchange.
Dean said his proposal would transfer authority to enrollees and their locally elected officials.
“MNsure has been an expensive technical, bureaucratic and programmatic disaster for Minnesotans,” Dean said. “I am looking for a Minnesota way to move forward. Clearly, the top-down approach just made things worse for Minnesota.”
Key details of Dean’s plan include:
- Scrapping MNsure, its board and website.
- Transferring money currently allocated by the Dayton Administration to replace MNsure IT to Minnesota counties, enabling them to build and oversee the public programs they administer. Dean indicated that, according to recent data, the Dayton Administration plans to spend more than $200 million next year in an attempt to fix the flagging IT system. “This money was not appropriated and will just be good money after $300 million of bad money,” Dean said.
- Getting the state out of the private insurance business by focusing its efforts with people on public programs at the local level and letting everyone else purchase private insurance without state involvement.
“Minnesota has the best healthcare providers in the world,” Dean said. “We need to reconnect them with their patients by getting government out of the way. The bill I am authoring is an important first step to once again delivering care the Minnesota way.”
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Rep. Dean can be reached via email at rep.matt.dean@house.mn or by calling (651) 296-3018.