The second meeting of the Health Insurance Exchange Advisory Task Force was held November 17th in at the St. Paul River Center. This group is charged with providing options in setting up a health insurance exchange for Minnesota as required by the federal Affordable Care Act. TakeAction Minnesota’s Together For Health leaders have been attending the group’s meetings. (See Ann Marie’s post from the first meeting.)
The meeting started with a presentation of Economic and Actuarial Modeling Results which was to show the impact of the Affordable Health Care Act on insurance markets in Minnesota. Key findings of their study were:
- Almost 300,000 Minnesotans will gain insurance coverage
- Maintenance of Effort on MN Care and decisions regarding the Basic Health Plan)
- Household budgets should improve by $500 to $700 per household
- Individual market enrollees should see a decline in premiums (after tax credits) of 20-25% on average.
During the second half of the meeting the critical issue of how the exchange will impact the disparity of health care services in the State of Minnesota was raised. Several members of the task force expressed concern around how the exchange would impact the service of health care to those currently not covered as well as other groups such as minorities, legal immigrants and low income. A meeting on this topic was set for January 17.
There appears to be a real rush to have the work of the Task Force completed close to the opening of the State Legislative session in late January. There should be some concern that an exchange has many moving parts and many different and invested groups involved. Critical issues such as the delivery of quality and equitable care do not get lost. This is especially true as there are a number of working groups that are to make recommendations to the task force and are just now being established. Who will be on these groups, what are their responsibilities and when will they meet?
As to the Exchange Task Force itself, it appears that the four seats on the task force have been filled by DFL legislators as the Republican legislators have decided not to participate.
The Health Insurance Exchange Advisory Task Force has a real challenge ahead of it. It not only needs to design a key component of the Affordable Care Act but must do so in a way that ensures that all residents of Minnesota provides quality health care for all Minnesotans. We will continue to track its progress.
Bruce E. Larson
Bruce Larson is a leader with TakeAction Minnesota’s Together For Health
