MN health insurers lost money on individual, family plans last year

Minnesota health insurers lost more than $350 million last year selling plans on the individual and family market.

President Jim Schowalter of the Minnesota Council of Health Plans said the losses outpaced those of 2014, the first year of the Affordable Care Act's health insurance mandate. The red ink forced double-digit rate increases this year.

Schowalter said prices should become more stable as insurers learn to match premium revenue with the cost of care.

"We would hope that between the insurance plans and the regulators that we're going to keep on bringing things more into balance," he said. "We know more every year, and that's a process of adjustment that we're all going through."

"The bottom line is that premiums don't cover the medical expenses for the people who are getting insurance," he said.

Correction (April 2, 2016): An earlier version of this story did not clarify that the $350 million loss includes expected federal reimbursements of more than $200 million.