Health plans waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19
On Thursday, Minnesota’s health plans announced that they had agreed to waive cost-sharing for treatment of COVID-19.
Minnesotans with commercial insurance—including individuals, small businesses, and some large businesses—are now eligible for the following benefits:
- Minnesotans will have no cost-sharing charges for COVID testing.
- Minnesotans who are hospitalized will have no cost-sharing charges for in-network hospitalization.
- Minnesotans will have expanded access to telemedicine services. This will help people to stay home and access care if they need it.
Minnesota health plans that have agreed are Blue Cross and Blue Shield, HealthPartners, Hennepin Health, Medica, PreferredOne, and UCare.
Many Minnesotans that receive their coverage through their employer have self-insured plans. While the Minnesota Departments of Health and Commerce do not have regulatory authority over these plans, they are encouraging employers to work with their plan administrators to implement similar measures.
Child care grants available
The application process for emergency grants for child care providers is now open. The funding for this program was included in legislation passed by the House and Senate on March 26th.
There are approximately 420,000 children under the age of 12 who live in a household of an essential worker within a critical sector. Of these, the state estimates that during this peacetime emergency, about 270,000 children will need care and approximately 120,000 are likely to need and use licensed child care settings.
These grants will provide about $10 million per month over the next few months to support basic infrastructure needed to keep child care capacity available.
Child Care Aware of Minnesota will administer and distribute these funds for emergency child care services. Grants can be found here: https://www.childcareawaremn.org/providers/emergency-child-care-grants/
State of the State
Earlier this week, the Governor announced he will deliver his second State of the State address on Sunday, April 5, beginning at 7:00pm. The address will be delivered live from the Governor’s Residence and can be watched on YouTube Live.
My office will continue to be a resource to find answers to your questions and provide updates about the status of this public health crisis. Please reach out if I can be of assistance and consider sharing this email with your neighbor or relatives. If you know of anyone who would appreciate these updates, please let them know they can subscribe to my email list here.
House staff are tele-commuting in order to comply with public health guidance, so if you call my office at 651-296-7026, please be prepared to leave a voicemail message. You can also send an email to rep.ryan.winkler@house.mn.
Despite receiving a high volume of communication in recent days, I will respond to your messages as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone for doing your part in fighting the spread of COVID-19.
Sincerely,
Rep. Ryan Winkler
House Majority Leader
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