RELEASE: STATEMENT FROM LEADER DAUDT ON 2022 INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE MARKET RATE RELEASE

NEWS RELEASE

STATEMENT FROM LEADER DAUDT ON 2022 INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE MARKET RATE RELEASE

ST. PAUL — On Friday, the Minnesota Department of Commerce released final rates for the 2022 individual insurance market. According the numbers released by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, rates increased by between 4.31% and 11.33% across insurance providers. Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, released the following statement regarding the rate hike.

“House Democrats are responsible for scaling back our nation-leading reinsurance program, and in the process raising health insurance rates for Minnesotans across the state,” said Daudt. “After years of steady or decreasing health insurance rates, this increase is a hit to Minnesotans at a time when many are still reeling from the economic effects of COVID-19 mandates. Democrats were warned that scaling back this program would result in higher costs, and yet they still insisted on it, even trying to end it completely. Had the House GOP not fought for this program to continue, the crisis would be even worse.”

Minnesota’s reinsurance program must be reauthorized and extended next year to ensure market stability into the future. The state received $65 million from the federal government to support the program going forward, which should make reauthorization an easy decision. From 2014-2017, average rates increased by double digits every year, including up to 67 percent for 2017. Thanks to Republican reforms enacted in 2017, individual market rates for 2018-2020 remained flat or were reduced for most Minnesotans on the individual market. 

“Democrats want to bring us back to double-digit increases, harmful enrollment caps, and an individual market that was brought to the brink of collapse before House Republicans passed the reinsurance program,” Daudt added. “Democrats voted to raise health care costs by opposing a program that has been repeatedly proven to lower them. Responsibility for this rate hike lands squarely on the shoulders of Democrats in the legislature.”

Democrats pushed unsuccessfully during the 2019 session to eliminate key reforms that increased the number of health care options for Minnesotans. They pushed once again to completely end reinsurance during this past session, which would have increased health insurance costs by 20 percent or more.

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