St. Paul – Without a doubt the most discussed issue in recent state and national news has been the long-awaited implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which began, in earnest, on October 1.
While most agree that implementation across the country has been a disaster, I’ve reserved judgment for the first two months until sufficient time has been given to fix problems with MNsure (Minnesota’s arm of Obamacare) and the federal HealthCare.gov website.
However, HealthCare.gov still is not functional and MNsure continues to lack basic functionality. The March 31 deadline is fast approaching for those without insurance to purchase it or be forced to pay a fine. Folks forced off existing plans must find new coverage by Dec. 15 to continue coverage in the new year.
Since time is ticking, it’s important to discuss the current state of affairs of MNsure. Now, as the 15,000 pages of law and related regulations begin to affect Minnesota families, some irrefutable facts are beginning to come in:
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Cost: For many individuals and families, insurance through MNsure is more expensive, or the plans that are affordable do not offer what they need. For some it is less expensive.
Individual, family and small business plans sold through MNsure will be assessed a 1.5-percent tax in 2014, and as much as 3.5-percent in later years.
To date, MNsure has spent over $150 million on the website, staff expenses and start-up costs. These expenses do not go toward actual health care or prevention programs. By 2016, MNsure operational expenses are expected to grow to more than $330 million.
The total federal spending on state websites came to about $4.4 billion. The federal website cost about $515 million by early October. Presumably they are spending more now, but no one has been able to say how much a fix to the federal site will cost.
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Enrollment: As of Nov. 2 (the most recent numbers released by the Dayton Administration), fewer than 11,000 people have begun the process of enrolling through MNsure, while zero have actually completed enrollment and received their policy documents.
Of those enrolling, only 1,774 are purchasing individual market coverage, while the rest are enrolling in public programs (MinnesotaCare or Medical Assistance).
Looking to the future, MNsure needs 1.3 million people to enroll by 2016 to be financially sustainable. If this number is not reached, MNsure officials will need to hike up the tax on each plan or have to take General Fund dollars to cover any shortfall in operating costs, which are as high as $76 million per year.
The goal of this new health care law is to provide health insurance to those who don’t currently have health insurance. Let’s look at where we are at in that regard:
Prior to passage of the Affordable Care Act, about 9-percent of Minnesotans were uninsured, with almost 75-percent of those uninsured eligible for existing public assistance programs or private plans through their employer. That means our nation-leading health care system was replaced by Obamacare and MNsure to find solutions to insure around 125,000 of the state’s 5.4 million residents, roughly 2.5-percent of Minnesotans.
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Choice: As many as 280,000 Minnesotans who currently have insurance will be forced to give up their existing coverage and purchase more expensive plans as a result of Obamacare. Last week, Governor Dayton refused to allow those people to keep their plans for an additional year.
In terms of numbers: for every private plan in the enrollment process of MNsure, well over 100 Minnesotans are being forced off their current plans.
Despite promises that MNsure would work like Expedia or Travelocity, it still lacks the basic function to search if your current clinic or current doctor will be covered under any given plan.
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Privacy: Due to insufficient and questionable data policies put in place by MNsure executives, earlier this fall a very massive data breach occurred when an employee inadvertently emailed thousands of social security numbers, putting these people at risk of identity theft.
We have been told that these problems have been fixed, but the data breach highlights privacy concerns that still exist throughout the system both in Minnesota and in Washington where all health care information ends up.
The ultimate goal for Obamacare is that enough young, healthy individuals will sign up to fulfill the remaining promises that more people will be insured and health care costs will decline by $2,500 per typical American family per year.
Please feel free to contact my office if you have any questions regarding MNsure or other items related to state government. I am here to serve you! I can be reached by phone at (651) 296-5377. I can also be contacted via e-mail at rep.bob.barrett@house.mn, or via U.S. Mail at 287 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155.