Eligible Minnesotans finally getting insurance discounts
The 63-year-old
Now salvation has arrived, in the form of a
"It was a real blessing," said Reed. "When you're looking at these doctor's bills coming in but you're still dishing out
DISCOUNTS ARE RETROACTIVE
Reed's experience was similar to most eligible Minnesotans: After paying full premiums for the first few months of the year, she's now getting a 25 percent discount, starting with her just-received May bill. But because the discount is retroactive, Reed and most other eligible Minnesotans owe nothing for their May bill. That's because multiple months of 25 percent discounts are applied all at once.
The rebates apply to people who buy insurance on the individual market, and not to people who get insurance through an employer or through a government program such as
There are no firm statistics on how many Minnesotans are receiving the rebate. As many as 120,000 people may have been eligible, but the state department of
"It makes a huge difference," Vetvick said of the
REBATES TOOK MONTHS TO IMPLEMENT
Though the premium-relief plan became law in late January, it took the state's insurers months to update their computer systems to process the rebates. Most Minnesotans saw the discount on their May bill, received in the past week. Customers with UCare insurance got their discount a month early, for their April bills.
"It's pretty nice," Sexton said. "With the farm economy the way it is right now, anything helps."
Having the May bill entirely paid for was nice, but Sexton and Reed both wish lawmakers had acted more quickly so the discount could have been applied from the start of the year.
"I had to wait for four months to get it," Sexton said. "That was quite a while."
DISCOUNT APPLIED AUTOMATICALLY ON BILLS
Minnesotans need to pay whatever their insurance company bills them for in full, rather than applying a discount on their own. The discount will be reflected on their regular bills.
The premium relief will last only for the rest of 2017. Open enrollment for 2017 insurance ended in February. Lawmakers passed a different program to try to lower premiums in 2018, called "reinsurance," in which the state will pay for some high-cost medical claims that could otherwise drive up everyone's premiums.
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