Minnesota House Passes Health Insurance Bill

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Tonight on a vote of 73-54, the Minnesota House passed a bill creating a relief subsidy program aimed to address increasing health insurance premiums in the individual market.

Under the plan, policyholders wouldn’t see relief until 2018, and it also contains many complex health insurance policy changes.

“Minnesotans are being hit hard by massive premium increases, and the bill passed tonight doesn’t get relief to these folks nearly fast enough,” Rep. Jennifer Schultz (DFL – Duluth) said. “It’s extremely disappointing that with such a simple plan on the table to get premium relief to Minnesotans now – as proposed by Governor Dayton – we are going in this direction with reckless, unvetted policy changes.”

The provisions include income limits, controversial stop loss attachments, and allows HMOs to be operated by for-profit entities.

In addition to not giving relief to Minnesotans until 2018, the plan would be administered by a new bureaucratic entity at a hefty price tag: $20 million.

The bill now goes to a Conference Committee where differences with the Senate version of the bill will be considered.