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 Bemidji region could save $6,348 on their premium costs over the next year alone.
“This is great news and it shows that our state is pointed in the right direction after we put an end to the days of double-digit increases,” said Rep. Matt Bliss, R-Pennington. “Changes we made over the last biennium are helpful, but more work remains to put our state’s health insurance system on solid ground for the long term. As those efforts continue, it is good to receive good news and see that we are making progress on such an important issue that has caused so many headaches for Minnesotans trying to make ends meet.”
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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