Dear Neighbor,
MNsure is more than six months old, the enrollment deadline has passed, yet we still have more questions than answers as to what is wrong with this program.
How bad is it? Even the feds are getting in the act. U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa launched an investigation into Gov. Mark Dayton’s and Democrats’ failures in trying to build Obamacare in Minnesota. Issa sent a rather blunt letter to the governor earlier this week. It, in part, reads:
“It is clear that the Minnesota exchange has failed to live up to expectations. Despite receiving over $155 million dollars in federal grants to set up its ObamaCare exchange, the exchange has managed to enroll only approximately 38,000 people. Put differently, for every person enrolled by the exchange, federal taxpayers gave the state approximately $5,000.”
The head of MNsure was called to testify before Issa’s committee in Washington D.C. Thursday and it would be good to hear some real answers regarding the depths of MNsure’s problems. We also have an investigation underway by the state auditor’s office that could shed light on this subject.
On a related note, House Republicans conducted a news conference this week to express concerns regarding the failure of Dayton and Democrats to live up to the promises they made as advocates for bringing Obamacare to Minnesota. Citizens deserve answers from them in a number of areas, including:
1) Revealing how many uninsured Minnesotans now have coverage.
2) Coming clean about why MNsure’s is not functioning like Travelocity, as we were told it would.
3) Disclosing how much premiums will increase when rates are released in September.
Enrollment in commercial plans is nowhere near what is necessary to keep MNsure afloat. Advocates of this program recently announced some pumped-up enrollment numbers, but there are devils in the details. First of all, a large percentage of enrollees MNsure backers report include people who have been shifted from one government program to another. No real progress has been made if the overall goal of MNsure was to ensure previously uninsured Minnesotans had coverage.
The only way MNsure can even hope to sustain itself is with a better balance between public and private plans. MNsure also needs younger, healthier people to enroll and pay the freight for others, but this demographic has been slow to get on board from the start.
It will be interesting to follow these developments. Only time will tell if there are improvements that can shock MNsure to life, or if it is just a broken, wasteful program that serves as an example of bureaucrats thinking they know better and getting involved in things they should not.
Sincerely,
Tom