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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Diane Loeffler (DFL)

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Legislative Update: Health insurance relief and listening sessions invitation (January 20, 2017)

Friday, January 20, 2017

Greetings!

It was a full week with lots to learn, ponder and act on.  But it ended on a very disappointing note regarding health insurance. 

A very scary health insurance change adopted

None of us wants to have to seriously use our health insurance, but we want it there to take care of us no matter what the surprise diagnosis or accident. We all want quality, comprehensive coverage without having to worry about what diseases are covered. 

The Republican health proposal passed on Thursday night could take away that assurance for many (House amendments to SF 1).  In a surprise amendment, the Republican majority passed a provision that will allow health insurance companies to offer policies that don’t cover all of the current mandates in state law.  Thus, insurers individually or collectively could decide to offer policies that don’t cover what most of us consider the basics:  cancer care, diabetes, babies born on a family policy, emergency care, and more. I’ll post the full list at the end. 

The insurer would have to offer at least one comprehensive policy for sale and then it could offer others with limited coverage. If your employer offers you coverage, they could choose to buy a limited plan, not comprehensive coverage.  Buying insurance on your own is complicated enough with copays, deductibles, hospital and clinic networks, and pharmacy coverage differences.  It would be a major distraction to also have to compare varying health treatment coverage details. 

This proposal was never introduced as a bill or offered in committee so no public input, feedback from hospitals and doctors, or health insurers was listened to or weighed.  The author thinks people want the “freedom” to pick “a la carte” coverage for what they think might be a risk to their health. 

When presented with the real story of a young man who confronted cancer and what would happen if he had a “no cancer care” policy, the author of the amendment just said he’d have the freedom to make his own choices.  The reality of that would be going without care, getting charity care from the hospital or doctor (who then would raise their prices to cover that and increase everyone’s insurance costs eventually), or have lots of fundraisers to cover the bills.  That’s not a set of choices I wish on anyone confronting cancer.

Not having new babies covered under family plans?  That’s one way for insurers to avoid the risk of covering premature babies or those with other expensive early life problems (unless you buy their expensive add on to your policy).

Insurance is about sharing the risk across a large population so it’s affordable for everyone.  When you start to peel off a major share of the population because they think they’ll  be healthy that year, it’s all they can afford, or their employer selects a “bare bones” policy, the costs go up for everyone in the comprehensive policy market and then you have what is called “a death spiral.”  It makes it harder and harder for anyone to afford insurance and so they’re forced to rely on “crossed fingers” and fundraisers.

In a recent Health and Human Services hearing, the Commissioner of Health Dr. Ed Ehlinger shared research that our health is determined 10% by our genes and biology.  Thus, none of us can effectively predict what health issues may arise in our life in any given year when buying insurance.

Immediate help delayed again

The focus of this bill was to provide financial help for persons and families facing 50% and higher increases in buying coverage in the individual market (because they have no access to employer coverage). This was first proposed by Gov. Dayton this fall for Special Session action.  The Governor’s proposal, which I support and am a co-author on, would reduce those premiums by 25%, allowing many to be able to afford coverage. It’s a small group, about 125,000 people, but many can’t afford the insurance without some help.  They’re small business owners and employees, realtors and others in the “gig” economy. 

While saying they want to help these people, the proposal from the House creates a new bureaucracy to manage this and people will not likely get any financial help until the end of the year.  The Governor’s proposal has the insurance companies apply a 25% discount to the premium bill and has the insurer then bill the state.   Simple and fast. 

It’s an example of what happens when we don’t focus on our community’s needs (immediate action so people know if there’s financial help coming if they buy insurance before the January 31 deadline) and the heavy weight of writing laws (all major changes that impact people’s lives should be thoughtfully considered with input from those impacted).   

A conference committee of a small number of House and Senate members will begin meeting next week to compare the House and Senate versions and try to come to agreement on a final bill to bring back for a final vote.  (Conference Committee Reports can’t be amended, just voted up or down.)   I hope they jettison the controversial major changes in both the House and Senate bills and send the Governor a clean bill offering immediate financial relief to people having to buy insurance on their own.  We are only 11 days from the last day for purchase of private insurance this year.

Great turnout at public hearing on Northern Metals

Thanks to all who joined the big crowd at the public hearing at Eastside Neighborhood Services this week.  We heard an update from the MN Pollution Control Agency on the pollution history of Northern Metals and the proposed settlement that would include moving them out of the area in 2018. 

The crowd of about 100 broke into small groups to develop ideas on how funds that may be available as mitigation for the community impacts might be used.  There was a lot of creativity and common threads in the long lists shared at the end. They will now be assembled with those from an earlier public meeting and state and city officials will confer on what seems possible given the court timeframes and what amount of funds becomes available.  I have attended and testified at meetings about Northern Metals for over 20 years.  I am hopeful that we will soon have them moved out and move forward on improving our air quality and the health of our river.

I’ll catch you up on other issues of the week in the future.  Next week the Governor gives his State of the State Address and releases his budget recommendations.  

You’re invited

I also want to invite you to my listening sessions next weekend. I’ll be joined by Sen. Kari Dziedzic and we’ll be holding two of them on Saturday, January 28. The locations are listed below:

Bottineau Park Multipurpose Room – 2000 Second St. NE, Minneapolis, MN, 55418

10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Windom Park Multipurpose Room – 2251 NE Hayes St., Minneapolis, MN, 55418

1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

I hope to see you there!

Diane

Attached is the list of coverages that insurers could decide to drop in health insurance policies of the future. When I put it out on Twitter, it has had 50,000 views.  If you use Twitter, I’m @reploeffler.

 

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