Dear Neighbor,
Dayton and the Democrats’ new government-run insurance program is still a mess just days before it is set to launch on Tuesday. In fact, MNsure even advises Minnesotans to not rush into joining.
The quotes from MNsure meetings the last week or so are highly concerning. One county staffer said, “The more I learn about MNsure, the less I feel I know.” Another said, “If they get this thing running on Oct. 1, they should get an award.”
I can only speculate the county staffer was being facetious when they said awards should be given out if MNsure is up and running Oct. 1. MNsure is all but certain to start that day, regardless of how ill-prepared it is to accept enrollment and how poorly it will perform. But forget awards, people should be reprimanded for starting this thing up before it is ready.
Many of us have been concerned about data privacy regarding both Obamacare and MNsure. Even the Minnesota Association of Health Underwriters president told legislators that insurance agents and brokers are leery. She said it “felt very much like a train going very, very fast and nobody wanted to stop and listen to us.”
This security issue recently came to a head when a MNsure staffer errantly made public the personal information of 2,400 Minnesotans. The worker sent private data, including Social Security numbers, to a public email address.
Now, internal MNsure documents warn of “an abnormally high risk of a data breach” during the exchange’s first six months.
Democrats have wasted around $150 million of our tax dollars on creating bureaucracy for this project - or even worse. It is absolutely absurd media outlets are reporting one MNsure “accomplishment” included in a recent report is: “Made a MNsure playlist on the iPod for anyone who is interested.”
Not a dollar of that has gone toward providing actual care. It sickens me to see our tax dollars wasted like this.
The people who created this government monstrosity are not telling the whole story when they say that Minnesota has the “lowest rates in the nation.” That is only true when you exclude the private market and compare MNsure prices with other states’ Obamacare rates. Also, projections say MNsure prices will rise by an average of 29 percent (or even up to 42 percent) by 2016.
But what if MNsure proves to be unsustainable out of the gate? A recent KSTP report provides the gory details of a closed-door meeting where this apparently was discussed. To say it is unsettling is an understatement.
Minnesotans care about three things when it comes to health care: Accessibility to their doctor of choice, affordability and data privacy. The Democrats’ new government-run insurance program is not set up to truly deliver in any of these areas.
It is baffling how the Democrats are ramming this program into start-up despite significant flaws and serious public concerns. Dayton flat-out admitted there are going to be mistakes with this program. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't cut it. This is an extremely important area to people and only time will tell how many headaches he and Democrats will cause when reality replaces their pie in the sky.
Sincerely,
Tom