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ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) — Help is coming for thousands of Minnesotans hit with skyrocketing health care premiums. The Minnesota House and Senate passed an emergency aid package Thursday and have sent it to the Governor. And Governor Mark Dayton is expected to sign the bill immediately. The Minnesota House and Senate passed that rescue rebate for 125,000 Minnesotans hit with huge monthly premium hikes. But it took months to reach agreement, while Minnesota families worried about what to do. Self-employed families are facing monthly insurance premiums of $2,500 a month or more. They make too much to get tax...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act, Minnesota critics of the health care law are not ending their fight to repeal it. And state Republican leaders are calling for an immediate halt to any more spending on MNsure, the state’s health care exchange. “There’s no reason to continue throwing good money after bad at this point,” Minnesota State Rep. Tara Mack said.

MNsure says it will use the money to upgrade its website and address other ongoing issues. MNsure will receive an additional $34 million in federal funds to continue work on the state’s health insurance enrollment system.With the new money, total federal grant funding in support of Minnesota’s health insurance exchange is now about $189.3 million, according to an announcement Wednesday by MNsure.The money will fund improvements to the MNsure website, said Scott Leitz, the MNsure chief executive, during a board meeting Wednesday in St. Paul. It also will let MNsure address ongoing issues, Leitz said, such as invoices for people...

Minnesota was one of the states where Jonathan Gruber, an economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was involved in the creation of the federal Affordable Care Act, helped to set up a local health insurance exchange. Gruber has come under fire for comments he made a year ago about how the federal law was passed. Video that surfaced this month showed him saying that a "lack of transparency" and "the stupidity of the American voter" were key to getting the federal law passed. He was paid $330,000 for his work in Minnesota. What did he produce? Gruber, who...

Minnesota human services officials didn't verify that low income people enrolling in health plans through MNsure were eligible for benefits they got, the state legislative auditor said Wednesday. The state Department of Human Services did not check key eligibility criteria, such as Social Security numbers, citizenship, income, and household sizes for Medical Assistance (Minnesota's Medicaid program), MinnesotaCare, and Children's Health Insurance Program recipients. That screening breakdown "resulted in ineligible persons receiving public health care benefits," the auditor said in its report. "They're not getting it right," Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles said. "We design these systems to make complex eligibility determinations....

The Star Tribune reported yesterday that the Minnesota Department of Commerce “asked” PreferredOne to lower insurance rates in the MNsure exchange last year. The July 2013 letter referenced in the story reveals the company lowered rates twice in response to Commerce “objections.” PreferredOne ultimately agreed to lower rates by 37 percent from its initial proposal, which resulted in the company offering the lowest rates in the nation. Governor Dayton’s administration celebrated these low rates throughout the year, all of which helped dial down the political heat from MNsure’s botched rollout. “Now,” according to the Star Tribune, “those subscribers face an...

Although the Obama administration has yet to release the federal health care premiums for 2015, some private insurers have. One of them in Minnesota has indicated that they will be showing increases of up to 60% for their ACA-compliant policies. Preferred One, the largest and lowest-cost provider of health insurance in the state, pulled out of the state’s MNsure exchange last month due to its being “unsustainable.” Alycia Riedl, with the Minnesota Association of Health Underwriters, commented on the news:

The insurer pulled out of the MNsure exchange and foresees a 63 percent average premium increase. Sticker shock could be on the horizon for thousands with coverage from PreferredOne, the top-selling health plan in the first year of the MNsure exchange. The Golden Valley-based insurer said Wednesday that its individual market subscribers will see an average premium increase next year of 63 percent. The company plans to send letters at the end of October telling individuals exactly what to expect, since the average represents a blending of higher and lower rates for individuals that vary by age, geography and smoking...

The Minnesota Association of Health Underwriters (MAHU) has a strong message for Gov. Mark Dayton and MNsure, the state's health insurance marketplace. The association, which represents insurance agents told Dayton MNsure and the Minnesota Department of Commerce that the new MNsure average rate increase, set at 4.5 percent, is misleading consumers and making it more difficult for them to shop for better health insurance coverage. MAHU wants the Governor, MNsure and Commerce to tell MNsure clients the average rate increase, for most shopping through the exchange, will be considerably higher than 4.5 percent. MAHU Board Chair Alycia Riedl tells 5...

Obamacare in Minnesota is called MNSure. The state had the usual problems (worse, I believe, than in most states) getting its system and its web site up and running. Once the enrollment period got underway, the dominant insurer turned out to be PreferredOne. Reportedly offering the lowest premiums in the nation, PreferredOne signed up nearly 60% of all MNSure participants. So it was a bombshell when PreferredOne announced earlier this week that it will no longer participate in the state’s exchange, saying that “continuing to provide this coverage through MNsure is not sustainable.”It seems a foregone conclusion that this will...

It’s a major blow to the MNsure health insurance exchange – the insurance company with the lowest rates and the most customers signed up through MNsure will not be back in 2015. The decision is expected to have a major impact on health insurance customers and the governor’s race. Golden Valley-based PreferredOne Health Insurance just notified MNsure and the Minnesota Department of Commerce of their decision through a letter. Sources tell KSTP’s Tom Hauser that MNsure CEO Scott Leitz was notified by phone Tuesday morning. PreferredOne Spokesman Steve Peterson tells Hauser this is “purely a business decision.” He says the...

As Minnesota's legislative auditor announced Wednesday a full evaluation of MNsure, state officials revealed plans to address a key question: Did the federal health law reduce the number of Minnesotans lacking coverage. MNsure has asked University of Minnesota researchers to work with insurance companies and the state Department of Human Services to provide a preliminary estimate for the impact of the federal Affordable Care Act on the uninsured rate in Minnesota. The most recent estimate suggests about 445,000 Minnesotans lacked coverage last year. Projections last year suggested the health law would reduce that number to between 159,000 and 201,000 by...

Minnesota's exchange enrollment goal of 67,000 seemed within reach on Jan. 4, when signups stood at 25,860. But after surging by more than 4,000 per week in the prior five weeks, signups collapsed back to November's pace of less than 700 per week. As of Feb. 1, Nevada had just 14,999 paid enrollees — vs. the state's March 31 goal of 115,000. Washington state, meanwhile, was slightly more than halfway to its goal of 340,000 signups — but only 88,071 had paid as of Feb. 1. The January data available from a handful of states raise new doubts about whether...

The 14 states running their own health insurance marketplaces had all their startup costs footed by the federal government, but they're supposed to pay for themselves starting next year under the new federal health care law. In several states, it's not clear whether it will work out that way. Projected enrollments are lower than expected, meaning the insurance surcharges designed to sustain the exchanges might not generate enough revenue in the years ahead without significant changes in the financing model. Officials in some states are stashing away federal grant money to continue paying for operations beyond the January 2015 target...

Fourteen MNsure managers were paid bonuses totalling more than $26,000 in November as Minnesota launched its troubled online health insurance exchange, state officials said Wednesday. After MNsure went online Oct. 1, software problems bogged down website users and led to long delays for callers to its overwhelmed call center in St. Paul. Rep. Joe Hoppe, R-Chaska, first raised questions about the bonuses in a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday. "After MNsure's catastrophic launch, MNsure executive staff received bonus compensation," he said, citing a state report prepared last week. "Given the chaos that was apparent within MNsure, this is...

Minnesota isn't alone in wasting federal dollars on failing exchanges. ObamaCare exchanges built by Oregon, Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont also are suffering serious-to-fatal problems. These six states — all solidly Democratic — received $1.2 billion in ObamaCare grants, according to official tallies by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Those dysfunctional six are in addition to 35 states that initially accepted funds to build exchanges that never got built.

The review identifies a number of fundamental problems with MNsure.org, including: — Lack of capacity for tying together all data entered by consumers. — The inability for users to make changes to information they entered during the open enrollment period. — Lack of access for workers to assist consumers who are shopping for insurance plans. — Multiple sets of rules governing the website operations that lead to the potential for errors as they overlap. — Inadequate testing capabilities for website functions. In addition to rampant problems with the website, the Optum review tackled the MNsure toll-free call center, which has...

Target Corp. said Tuesday that it will stop offering health insurance to its part-time employees because new online health exchanges offer workers an opportunity to buy coverage. The Minneapolis-based retailer will give each worker $500 to help buy health insurance, and has arranged for one-on-one consultations with benefits manager Towers Watson to help with the transition. The retailer announced the decision through its online site, “A Bullseye View: Behind the Scenes at Target,” in a Q&A with Jodee Kozlak, Target’s executive vice president of human resources. In the article, Kozlak acknowledged the disruption to workers. But she said the exchanges...

“I believe this is one of the most closed, obtuse, misdirecting, camouflaging agencies I have every dealt with.” Source: WCCO’s Pat Kessler, in an interview with Dan Barreiro on KFAN, December 18, 2013

The consumers initially were told they wouldn't get tax credits because of problems in the MNsure system that were first disclosed in November. The state government launched MNsure this fall to implement the federal Affordable Care Act, and officials are calling all those who require do-overs to provide instruction. The scope of the tax credit problem became clear Monday as users continued to be frustrated by the MNsure call center and website as they rushed to finalize coverage details before a Dec. 23 deadline. The website wasn't available Monday for people trying to fill out new applications. Meanwhile, officials confirmed...