One year after its painfully flawed roll-out, what has MNsure brought us? Supporters point to a decrease in the number of uninsured, as well as lower premiums for many. What are the facts?
MNsure was projected to enroll 930,000 people in its first year. [1] In reality, it only managed to enroll 327,000. Of these, the majority received Medicaid or Minnesota Care. [2] Even among those with private plans, many received premium subsidies.
In other words, the much vaunted decrease in premiums does not reflect an actual reduction in the cost of health insurance. Tax payers are footing the difference between the actual cost and the discounted rate paid by the recipient. Why did we need to spend $160 million creating a website that didn’t work [3], in order to allow ourselves to enroll more people in Minnesota Care and Medicaid?
Minnesota Care and Medicaid were in place long before MNsure came on the scene.
The true costs of health insurance have been going up, ever since the PPACA (Obamacare) was enacted. MNsure’s proponents say that Minnesota’s premiums are among the lowest in the nation. They ignore the fact that the whole nation’s health insurance costs have increased significantly. [4]
Click Here for a map of “before” and “after” averages, county by county.
MNsure’s first year has been disappointing, but surely the worst is behind us, right? Think again. PreferredOne, the insurance company with the lowest rates and the broadest networks, has recently announced that it’s withdrawing from MNsure. [5]
The Dayton administration claims that the resulting increase in premiums will be modest, averaging only 4.5%. This number is misleading. It does not take into account the differing levels of enrollment in the four participating companies, nor the varying costs of the premiums prior to the increases. Here are the true figures, drawn from a report by the Commerce Department: [6]
| Company | Increase / Decrease | Number Insured |
| Blue Cross/Blue Shield | 17% | 9,900 |
| Health Partners | 8.1% | 5,000 |
| Medica | 1.8% | 2,000 |
| UCare | -9% | 600 |
The Commerce Department totaled the numbers in the middle column and divided by four. The result is the average increase among the four companies. The average increase per customer will be much higher.
The financial toll of this failed program is not its greatest cost. The worst part is the loss of freedom and self-sufficiency for Minnesota’s insurance customers. We recently heard from a citizen who has, thus far, racked up 60 hours on hold on the telephone waiting for answers from MNsure. He finally succeeded in getting enrolled in PreferredOne. Now, with PreferredOne’s withdrawal, he’s back to square one and must start over. Why should this man, or anyone else, be required to go through a cumbersome government system to communicate with his insurance company? Do we live in America, or in an oppressive totalitarian state where individual freedom has been swallowed up by a centralized, planned economy?
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Sources:
(*1) http://www.startribune.com/local/225287012.html.
(*2) http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-09-17/lowest-cost-insurer-drops-from-minnesota-exchange. See also https://za.news.yahoo.com/lowest-cost-insurer-drops-minnesota-163724126.html
(*3) http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/09/16/preferredone-pulls-out-of-mnsure-for-2015/
(*5) http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/09/16/preferredone-pulls-out-of-mnsure-for-2015/
(*6) http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/277739541.html
