MN lawmakers on the verge of approving health insurance premium relief deal

Jan. 25--Minnesota lawmakers are about to approve relief for 120,000 Minnesotans facing skyrocketing health insurance premiums.

Lawmakers agreed on the precise language for the premium relief bill Tuesday, but still need to adopt some technical changes Wednesday afternoon. The full House and Senate plan to approve it on Thursday, and Gov. Mark Dayton says he'll likely sign it "as soon as I get my hands on the bill."

"Based on what I know, based on what I was told last night, it's a bill I'll sign," Dayton said Wednesday morning of the compromise adopted Tuesday. "We've got to get the premium relief... to people who need it."

State Rep. Joe Hoppe, R-Chaska, the lead House author of the measure, said lawmakers "are really, really close."

"Hopefully what we're working on overnight is just technical and will be done quickly (Wednesday)," Hoppe said Tuesday evening.

Once passed, the deal will provide 25 percent discounts to Minnesotans who buy their health insurance on the individual marketplace and earn too much money to qualify for existing federal subsidies. It will cost Minnesota taxpayers around $300 million, taken from the state's budget reserves.

It took months for Minnesota leaders to get this close to a deal, even though they've both parties agreed the state should provide the relief. But they disagreed about how that relief should be administered, and whether immediate should be bundled with long-term reform.

Had the deadlock continued much longer, it could have had major consequences. The open enrollment period for 2017 insurance ends on Jan. 31, and lawmakers want Minnesotans to be able to make an insurance purchase knowing whether they'll have subsidies for the year.

That doesn't mean Minnesotans will get immediate relief. It will take six to eight weeks of work to build computer systems to process the relief. Eventually it will show up as discounts on subscribers' insurance bills.

The relief will be applied retroactively for the first few months of the year.

The compromise approved Tuesday fell along the lines Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt suggested last week:

* Republicans agreed to Dayton's plan to have health plans administer the aid as part of their normal invoices, instead of requiring the state to send out checks.

* Dayton agreed to Republican demands to include several 2018-focused reforms in the bill, including allowing for-profit insurers into the individual market and letting farmers join together in co-ops to offer insurance.

* Several particularly controversial provisions were dropped, including an amendment adopted by House Republicans Thursday allowing people to buy plans without certain state-mandated benefits. Lawmakers also agreed to put off a market-stabilization plan called "reinsurance" for a few weeks so the proposal could receive more work.

Hoppe said the basic outline of the deal was struck last Wednesday.

"Last Wednesday the legislative leadership had breakfast with the governor," Hoppe said. "The governor and the leaders essentially agreed to a framework. The rest of it has been filling in the blank spaces."

Industry representatives and DFL lawmakers did object Tuesday evening to some details of how health market reforms were structured.

"A lot of these reforms still need more vetting," said DFL Sen. Melisa Franzen, of Edina. "Before we... vote for this bill, those provisions should be as close to final as possible."

But Republican lawmakers forged forward instead of delaying the measure further or striking certain provisions from the bill.

"There will probably be mistakes we find in this, but we've got to rock and roll anyway," said Rep. Matt Dean, R-Dellwood. "We do need to send a message that (reform) is just as important as the premium right now."

Democrats are likely to come on board after a final round of fixes is adopted Wednesday.

"We'll be able to pass it off the floor, at least from what I can see," Franzen said. "Even though there's some things I'm not 100 percent comfortable with, I'll be 100 percent comfortable with the fact that they took the governor's proposal and are moving ahead with haste."

Lawmakers will have chances to change or fix relief bill provisions later this session.

This article has been updated to clarify the nature of the Republican amendment that has been dropped from the bill.

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