ST. PAUL – For the second consecutive year, legislative reforms have proven to help 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 released final rates for the 2019 individual insurance market on Tuesday. All five of the carriers on the individual market are lowering premiums for 2019, with average rates dropping between 7.4 percent and 27.7 percent. For example, reports show a family of four in the House District 33A area could save $1,980 on their premium costs over the next year.
“The reforms we enacted this biennium have changed the trajectory for insurance rates on the individual market to provide not only a break from the double-digit premium increases, but to bring real cost savings to people who have been suffering an exorbitant burden,” said Rep. Jerry Hertaus, R-Greenfield. “This is all the more reason to support private-sector reform that increases access and broadens choice instead of shrinking the market by drawing people into a single-payer system. While more work remains, it is clear that our state is on the right path as we continue examining further reform to strengthen our health care system for the long term.”
The individual market serves Minnesotans who buy health insurance on their own, not through an employer or the government.
From 2014-2017, average rates increased by double digits every year, including up to 67 percent for 2017. Due to reforms enacted in 2017, individual market rates for 2018 remained flat or were reduced for most Minnesotans on the individual market. The Minnesota Department of Commerce confirmed last year and this year that without reforms, rates would have risen by 20 percent or more.
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