Businesses soak up MNsure details [Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.]

Oct. 31--While finger-pointing, explanations and accusations continue to come from politicians, pundits, agencies and U.S. citizens, businesses are gearing up for implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

"It's not going away -- the Affordable Care Act -- it's here. You need to deal with it," said Jess Ihrke, director of client enrollment and communications for SmartHR of Rochester, speaking to more than 100 people Wednesday morning at a Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

Ihrke joined an expert group of presenters that included the small-business health insurance marketplace director for MNsure, the health-insurance marketplace created in response to the ACA, and government-relations administrators from Mayo Clinic and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.

They spoke to a diverse audience that included leaders and human resources professionals from nonprofits, big businesses and small businesses.

Sandy Regnier, of Pace International in Rochester, said she attended the breakfast as a human-resources representative hoping to gather more information.

"We don't see any changes happening," she said. Instead, Regnier said, she is just trying to gather as much information as possible.

Janet Hofschulte, HR technician for Samaritan Bethany, said she was gathering information to help her employees make decisions.

Many have been frustrated that MNsure has only one or two plans available to Rochester residents, with hefty deductibles and much higher premiums than plans offered to Twin Cities residents, who also get a much wider selection of policies to pick from.

Mark Neeb, owner of The Affiliated Group call center in Rochester, said he has about 100 employees. He said he recently asked his staff how many have no health insurance. About half raised their hands. He asked how many wanted to get health insurance, and hands went down, he said.

Neeb said he thinks everyone should have health insurance. But the reality at his company, populated by young workers, is that they typically would rather risk not having insurance for the time being because they're still young and healthy. As a result, his company long ago stopped offering health insurance and instead funneled that benefit money directly into wages.

Neeb asked the speakers whether his employees will be tempted to move to the Twin Cities, where they can get cheaper MNsure health insurance because they're required by law to get it -- or must pay a tax penalty.

That penalty increases every year until 2016, when it reaches a little more than $2,000 for a family, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The experts said state officials are working to bring multistate health-insurance plans to Minnesota, which requires some regulatory changes. That, Neeb was told, will increase competition and lower costs, including in Rochester.

Neil Rolland, MNsure's small-business director, told the Post-Bulletin after the breakfast that Medica will join the state's MNsure offerings. A short time later, state officials announced Medica will offer seven new plans for Olmsted and Dodge County residents and six new childhood policies.

Blue Cross legislative affairs director Lynn Nelson said Blue Cross of Minnesota had limited time to get plans ready to join MNsure, so it set a top priority of making one "silver" plan available in every ZIP code in Minnesota.

Asked whether Blue Cross expects to offer more policies in the coming years on MNsure, Nelson said "we're looking at that."

So more choices might be on the way.

"Blue Cross has other products in the Rochester area not on the exchange," she told the audience. Nelson said there's a "much higher" cost to health care in Rochester at both Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center than in Hennepin County in the Twin Cities. She acknowledged Rochester patients have access to better technology.

Kathleen Harrington, Mayo government affairs director, gave a variety of reasons costs are higher in Rochester, first noting Mayo favors "access to good insurance for everyone."

When cost comparisons came to light, she said, "quite frankly, we were very surprised. Very surprised." But Mayo investigators studied the reasons and learned that most academic medical centers such as Cleveland Clinic, UCLA and Massachusetts General have access to multistate insurance options. But Minnesota residents don't.

Only about 58 percent of people in rural areas across the country have a choice of two plans.

"That's a national issue that we all need to face," Harrington said.

When Minnesotans get access to multistate health-insurance offerings, she said, "more competition will help drive down costs."

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