ST. PAUL – Following news reports that found a number of Minnesota residents had liens placed on their property after they had signed up for health insurance through MNsure, State Representative Greg Davids (R-Preston) is co-authoring legislation that would remove them.
"Once again, the disaster that is MNsure rears its ugly head," Davids said. "These are people who had no clue that liens would be placed on their estate if they agreed to the coverage MNsure gave them."
Davids noted that impacted residents had sought affordable insurance in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act law. MNsure gave them only one option – Medical Assistance – and the residents signed up. Later they discovered that their insurance would be paid for through liens on their estate after they had died.
"Inevitably, this cost their families tens of thousands of dollars because they didn't see it in the fine print, and MNsure didn't bother to bring it up with them even though it was the only insurance it selected for them," Davids said. "This legislation is designed to address this problem."
Davids said the initiative would require the reimbursement to the estate of any Medical Assistance recipient aged 55 to 64 who received services, other than institutionalization, retroactive to January 1, 2014. He is also supporting legislation that requires estate lien notice and consent to be given to residents before they sign up for Medical Assistance services.