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 12B area could save $4,704 on their premium costs over the next year.
“It is rewarding to see that our work in St. Paul is producing positive results to reverse the trend of rising health insurance premiums that have been choking family budgets,” said Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck. “This is such a complex issue that it can’t be fixed overnight, but these significant premium reductions are reason to be optimistic that the meaningful reforms we enacted during the last biennium are helping Minnesota restore its status as a national model for health care.”
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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