Dear Neighbor,
Residents of Minnesota who obtain their health insurance on the individual market yesterday learned that reforms we enacted earlier this year not only helped reverse the four straight years of double-digit premium increases, but also brought expanded health care choices – particularly to people in rural areas.
The individual market serves around 200,000 folks, those who do not obtain insurance from the government or from their employer. According to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, rates would have risen by 20 percent or higher without those reforms. Over the past four years, premium rates increased by double digits every year, including nearly 60 percent just one year ago.
In addition to premium relief, we successfully expanded health care options and improved access to hospitals and doctors. As part of the reinsurance legislation we passed, providers are now required to offer in-network access to more than one health care provider system in the counties in which they operate. This means:
- Every insurer currently in the market will remain for 2018.
- Every county will have at least one uncapped broad access plan.
- Every insurer will offer at least one plan per area with access to two or more provider systems.
Coming into this year, 62 of 87 counties had only one, single-network plan option for most of open enrollment. Several counties had no uncapped insurance option. Blue Cross had fled the market. While still not perfect, the current situation is a marked improvement.
It is encouraging to see these developments on a subject that has caused havoc for people all around our state, but more reform is necessary – including at the federal level. Without more relief from Obamacare mandates, our state’s options will remain limited and establishing permanent solutions to improve affordability and accessibility will be more difficult.
Sincerely,
Paul