Dettmer: 'No Lawmaker Can Safely Say Health Care Exchange Will Make MN Better Off'

Less than a month before the federal government requires a decision on whether Minnesota will move forward with a state-run health care insurance exchange, the House passed legislation Monday that would create a Minnesota Insurance Marketplace.

Sponsored by Rep. Joe Atkins (D-Inver Grove Heights), HF5 was passed as amended 72-58. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is scheduled for a floor vote on Thursday.

“It really is the most significant health reform that we’ve seen in Minnesota in 50 years,” Atkins said in describing the bill, which he anticipates will insure 300,000 currently uninsured residents and save $168 million per year in uncompensated care.

Rep. Bob Dettmer (R-Forest Lake) has another opinion of the bill.

“Minnesota’s Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) bill passed last night through the House of Representatives with sweeping DFL support. I voted “no” on HF5, the largest tax increase passed by the Minnesota House so far this year,” Dettmer said in a statement. “The move officially brings Obamacare to Minnesota through a multi-million dollar website and unelected board with little accountability to the public or taxpayers. 

While the bill has gone through many committee hearings, including several I sit on, the version passed by the House last night is cause for substantial concern from consumers, small businesses, and health care providers. The new super agency limits consumer choice, jeopardizes patient data privacy, and raises health insurance premiums.

Citizens may see their insurance costs increase whether or not they participate in the Exchange, and if not enough plans and consumers enter the system, we will all swallow millions in losses. The Exchange is a website Minnesota government will operate to the tune of over $50 million per year without substantial legislative oversight. No lawmaker can safely say this legislation will make Minnesota better off. 

Never in our history has an entity been created with such enormous power, the HIX even has exemptions that shroud the agency in secrecy and limit public notice. Many of the same elements of Obamacare that alarmed all of us after its passage are now hitting close to home.”

Amendments

Several amendments were added on the House floor, including one that would prohibit insurance plans in the exchange from offering abortion coverage.

Other adopted amendments would:

• allow a person using a federal tax credit or subsidy for insurance in the exchange to receive care from the doctor of their choice;
• make a navigator or in-person assistant personally liable for damages that result from the person’s acts or omissions when assisting participants;
• prohibit the exchange from sharing information outside the marketplace about whether an individual has used tobacco or owns a gun or has a firearm at home; and
• make breaches of data privacy a misdemeanor.

Timeline

Under the timeline, insurance providers would have from April until October to design their marketplace offerings and get them approved by the Commerce and Health departments.

Plans would then be uploaded to a Minnesota Insurance Marketplace website. Providers of the selected plans would begin enrolling consumers Oct. 1, 2013, with the help of community navigators and brokers.

“We have the most to lose, but are going to be the first to jump in blindly and lead the way in the Midwest on this experiment,” Rep. Matt Dean (R-Dellwood) said in opposition of the bill.

But if legislation was not passed, Minnesota would have to rely on a federal exchange, Atkins said, which could mean higher federal premium withholding taxes; contacting help in Washington, D.C. rather than in Minnesota; and losing local control over protecting data privacy or choosing which plans are offered on the exchange.

Rep. Tara Mack (R-Apple Valley) said there has been no proof that some of the claims of family savings will actually happen — and claims of some people’s premiums rising up to 29 percent have not been refuted.

- Sue Hegarty of the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Service contributed to this report.