Dear Neighbor,
Here is an update from the Capitol.
Reinsurance Bill Passes House
Last week, the House passed bipartisan legislation which is projected to reduce premium rates by an estimated 17-18 percent, according to Minnesota Management and Budget. House File 5, also called the Minnesota Premium Security Plan, establishes a state-based reinsurance program designed to help stabilize our failing individual health care market.
Minnesotans in Wright County and statewide who purchase insurance on the individual market are facing skyrocketing premiums and out-of-control cost increases year after year. This bill looks to remedy that and bring sustainability back to a market that is now just a third the size and twice as sick as it was before Obamacare was implemented.
To address affordability, the program will mitigate the impact of high-risk individuals, including those who are most sick, that are currently on the individual market. It will be managed by the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association (MCHA) which ran our state’s high-risk pool for over forty years.
Before the implementation of Obamacare, MCHA provided coverage to people considered high-risk who could not purchase insurance on the individual market. Once in law, those people were put in with the rest of the individual market causing rates to skyrocket and additional instability within the market. Many people who purchased from private insurers and on MCHA saw their costs go up significantly after the federal law took effect.
This plan is about returning our state to a national leader in health care, lowering premium costs, ensuring that those with the most medical needs continue to have access to the coverage they need, increasing competition, and stabilizing an individual market that is floundering after the implementation of Obamacare.
Similar legislation is also moving through the Senate, and I will keep you updated.
LIFO Reform
Also last week, the House passed legislation that will empower schools to keep the best teachers in the classroom. Minnesota is currently one of only six states that uses seniority as the sole determining factor when making difficult staff retention decisions in times of budget cuts or low enrollment.
By repealing the last in, first out (LIFO) default currently in state law, school districts and local bargaining units will be able to explore alternative options that work better for students, teachers and schools. It’s also important to note that this bill does not discourage seniority as a factor, but simply opens it up to additional criteria.
Effective teachers are critical to student success, and this bill gives schools more flexibility to hire and retain world-class teachers.
Rejecting a Raise
Last week, Speaker Kurt Daudt wrote a letter to the Minnesota House Controller, directing him not to implement salary recommendations put forth by the Legislative Salary Council.
The council, which was created after a constitutional amendment passed last year, recommended an increase from $31,140 to $45,000 a year in salary for state legislators—a roughly 45 percent increase. There has not been a pay raise for legislators since 1999.
House Republicans believe that the state’s constitution empowers the legislature to enact the appropriation and will not be supporting it. Instead, we are working to pass a responsible state budget and focusing on our shared priorities including meaningful tax relief, making health care more affordable, improving our economy, supporting our schools, and fixing our roads and bridges.
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If you need assistance on an issue pertaining to state government, my office is available to you. You can e-mail at Rep.Marion.ONeill@House.MN or call my office at 651-296-5063. You can also write a letter to me. My office address at the Capitol is 549 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, St. Paul, MN 55155.
Sincerely,
Marion