ST. PAUL – For the third consecutive year, reforms enacted in 2017 have helped reduce or hold flat individual market health insurance rates after years of double-digit increases following the implementation of Obamacare in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce on Tuesday released final rates for the 2020 individual insurance market. The agency indicates all five of the carriers on the individual market are lowering premiums or effectively holding premiums flat for 2020, with average rates ranging between a .18-percent increase and a 20-percent decrease.
“It is great to see the changes we enacted in 2017 continue to produce good results,” said Rep. Dale Lueck, R-Aitkin. “In 2020, Minnesotans will benefit from reduced costs, market stability stably and more choices. It is hard to fathom why some legislators and the governor so harshly criticized such an effective, nationally recognized program during the 2019 legislative session. We are still recovering from the damage done to the health insurance system the last time legislators decided to trash the existing system and try something unproven. In the end, common sense won the day and we were able to get agreement to extend a program that is working.”
According to a news release from MNsure, there will be 39 more health plan options in 2020, and every county will have at least two offerings in the individual market.
From 2014-2017, average rates increased by double digits every year, including up to 67 percent for 2017. Thanks to those reforms enacted in 2017, individual market rates for 2018 and 2019 remained flat or were reduced for most Minnesotans on the individual market.
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