Dear neighbor,
You may have noticed new television ads and billboards popping up along highways featuring Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox promoting Democrats’ Insurance Exchange called MNsure. While the ads may be lighthearted, there is nothing funny about what MNsure – the Minnesota arm of Obamacare – has been doing with $9 million of taxpayer money. MNsure needs to get young, healthy adults to enroll but I’m skeptical that Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox are best equipped to reach that target audience. Meanwhile, $9 million is a lot of money to avoid telling people they’re signing up for Obamacare with higher costs, fewer options, and inadequate safeguards for health care data privacy. Recently, I sat down with WCCO’s Pat Kessler to talk about my concerns with MNsure. You can watch that interview here.
If that weren’t enough, MNsure announced last Friday at 5:30 p.m. which groups would be receiving taxpayer-funded grants to promote enrollment in MNsure. Among the numerous grantees is Planned Parenthood. You can read the full list of grantees here.
It’s also troubling me to that, according to one account, the MNsure offices have conference rooms named after the House and Senate Democrat authors of the insurance exchange legislation as well as a conference room named after Democrat Governor Dayton. An agency that claims simply to be trying to enroll people in health insurance shouldn’t be so blatantly political.
Along with the bad politics of Obamacare and MNsure comes bad policy. I spoke to an employer of 1500 people yesterday. The employer is in a partnership that owns and operates over 50 fast food franchises. He said they have to make all but their store managers part-time employees (less than 30 hours per week) because Obamacare would otherwise cause them to close their business at which time none of those 1500 people would have a job!
It seems fitting that MNsure will officially open for business in October – the same month as Halloween. Unfortunately, the tricks of MNsure won’t bring any treats for Minnesotans.
I am always interested in your feedback. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail at Rep.Peggy.Scott@House.MN or contact my office at 651-296-4231. You can also send me mail to my office address: 201 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.
Sincerely,
Peggy