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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Rod Hamilton (R)

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REP. HAMILTON DISAPPOINTED WITH MNSURE FINDINGS

Thursday, February 26, 2015

ST. PAUL – Results of a MNSure audit conducted by Minnesota’s nonpartisan legislative auditor were released recently – and the program’s prognosis is not good.

According to the report, the failures of MNSure far outweighed any of its achievements. State Representative Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake) said he was disappointed with the results.

“I was most disappointed that MNSure withheld information from decision makers and lawmakers, which is totally unacceptable,” Hamilton said. “We owe it to Minnesotans to provide answers as to why the program isn’t working and provide a plan to eliminate the problems.”

Hamilton said MNSure was designed to help enroll an estimated 413,000 Minnesotans for health insurance coverage. Instead only 49,238 enrolled – or roughly 10 percent of the projected figure. The nonpartisan report also found that 72 percent of MNSure enrollees surveyed said they already had insurance; five percent of those surveyed said they spent at least four hours in the enrollment process; and 75 percent of private enrollees reported having significant technical problems with the website.

Hamilton was able to question the heads of MNSure and the human services department about the audit during a recent committee meeting. He wanted to know if the numerous problems outlined in the report have been corrected, and if not, Hamilton asked when the issues would be solved. He was troubled by the answers he received.

“It’s not OK to simply say it’s our intention or it’s our goal to fix the issues,” Hamilton said. “For as long as we’ve been working on this we need concrete answers. Minnesotans have already spent $200 million on this program and they deserve some positive results.”