MNsure launch to be delayed by several hours

Gov. Mark Dayton said today that federal authorities have told him that a government shutdown would not affect funding for state-run health insurance marketplaces such as MNsure.

House Republicans are demanding that any proposal to keep the government running contain a provision to delay the implementation of the federal health care law — a demand that Democratic leaders in the Senate, and President Barack Obama reject.

If Congress does not pass legislation by midnight to keep the federal government running, that could affect when MNsure launches, the governor said. The website is set to go live tomorrow.

For MNsure to verify insurance applicants' eligibility for federal tax subsidies, the system must be connected to the federal data hub.

Dayton said a delay in the availability of the federal data hub until about dawn tomorrow will slow MNsure's opening. MNsure officials reported the website is set to go live Tuesday afternoon.

"Originally we were going to have it up and running by the beginning of tomorrow," the governor said. "It's going to take a few hours for MNsure to hook their system up to the federal system."

MNsure's open enrollment period is slated to begin tomorrow and continue until the end of March.

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