When the Affordable Care Act was approved by Congress – known as “Obamacare” by some – one of the provisions of the legislation was to give states the opportunity to set up their own health insurance exchange. This basically amounts to setting up an internet portal where a number of health insurance companies can offer their product to small businesses or the uninsured for purchase.
At first blush, the offer sounds great, with significant competition leading to lower costs for consumers. But the health insurance exchange proposal that passed off the House floor recently will do none of that, as the plan prioritizes more cost, no privacy, and fewer choices.
I see a number of problems with the bill, starting with cost. Every premium is taxed 3.5 percent, which health insurance companies will pass on to non-exchange health insurance purchasers – meaning middle class taxpayers. We also learned during the House floor debate that insurance premiums will go up by 29 percent on average in the individual and small market groups. Perceived “savings” comes from federal subsidies, “funny money” with 40 cents borrowed on every dollar.
In addition, federal monies supporting Obamacare will increasingly decline in coming years, which leaves a huge burden on Minnesota that we cannot afford. The exchange will also be operated by a super agency, a board of seven members appointed by Governor Dayton that will have no health care experience. This group will also have no legislative oversight, meaning it can do and share whatever information it wants regardless of cost or common sense.
One of the things they will likely do is limit the number of insurance companies that can participate in the exchange.
Sound crazy? Then read what the Democrat chair of the House Health Policy Committee had to say about the exchange at a recent hearing, explaining why the current plan is good for all of us, and why having many competitors is bad for the consumer: “Just having an endless number of choices is not necessarily real choice. And the example I like to use is, I go to the store to buy a can of soup, if there are 30 brands, I may walk out without any soup…… it’s hard.”
Why would we take more choices, and more competition, out of the equation? Would you expect to see three kinds of soup at the grocery store, with the owner eliminating dozens of others just to make the decision easier for you? Something tells me most people would stop shopping there. Yet this soupy logic has now been signed into law by Governor Dayton, and over time, having these limited health choices will cost Minnesotans billions of dollars.