Reinsurance deal likely to save some Minnesotans big money

After the DFL-controlled House passed the reinsurance bill, Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill into law on Friday.

Original story:

After reaching a compromise one day before a federal deadline, House and Senate negotiators sent a reinsurance bill to the floors of both chambers. The Republican-controlled Senate quickly passed on a bipartisan vote of 47 to 20.

“There are 167,000 people in the individual market, and we need to make sure that they don’t suffer catastrophic premium increases this fall,” said Rep. Zach Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, shortly after a conference committee began consideration of the bill.

The Republican co-chair of the conference committee concurred.

“This gives the market some stability and I know the providers like to have that stability to know what they can look forward to in the future,” said Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls.

The bill calls for $717 million to be sent to health insurance companies so they keep a lid on health care premiums for the state’s highest-risk insured people on the individual insurance market.

Rep. Stephenson cited examples of potential savings of $500 to $4,600 per year for health insurance consumers, depending on what type of plan they have.

Still, some Democrats say authorizing reinsurance for five more years (although so far only funding for three years) doesn’t do anything to reform the health care system to bring down costs.

“Many of my Democratic colleagues in the House consider reinsurance to be a bridge to nowhere, and we keep extending the bridge, and it’s still a bridge to nowhere,” said Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, who opposes the bill.

Dahms says this is the best short-term fix but acknowledges it might become permanent.

“So when you ask if this is going to be a permanent thing, my comment to that would be until we find something that works better, this is probably what the answer is going to be,” Dahms told reporters before the final Senate vote.

The reinsurance bill is among the first major pieces of legislation to pass both chambers.

The legislature and governor still need to find ways to deal with the state’s $9.25 billion projected surplus and nearly a billion dollars in unspent federal funds.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller says the governor needs to get involved in negotiations on everything from the unemployment insurance trust fund to frontline worker bonus pay.

“He should work together with the legislature, and we should do it just like reinsurance,” he told reporters. “We should sit around the table, hear the ideas, and move forward accordingly.”

The deadline for the legislative session is May 23, but there’s a mid-June deadline for the state to spend much of the remaining federal funds.