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Minnesota Senate Republicans seized Monday on alarming news about the state's individual insurance market, describing a litany of proposals they'll pursue next year to address health care cost and access.

They outlined their plan days after Minnesota's top insurance regulator warned 

about the sustainability of the individual insurance market

 and fretted about steep jumps in health premiums for people who buy their own coverage. And it came about five weeks from Election Day, where they hope to win the 34 or more seats they'd need to take the majority from the DFL.

Their ideas ranged from allowing greater tax deductions for health insurance costs to letting agriculture cooperatives and fraternal clubs form their own health purchasing group pools. They said people on publicly subsidized health programs should be able to sign up through county offices rather than having to navigate the state-run MNsure.

Republicans also criticized an emergency measure by the Commerce Department to let health plans cap the number of subscribers they accept through MNsure.

Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, questioned whether the new quotas are even legal and said it could leave the sickest Minnesotans with the fewest and most costly options.

"We're becoming the Hunger Games of health care. This is not Minnesota's excellence. This is not what we've come to appreciate," Abeler said.

Most people still get their insurance coverage through an employer or a public health program. Five percent purchase their plans through the private market; those tend to be the self-employed, farmers or other small business owners.

Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, made the sharpest political pitch around health care, criticizing DFL lawmakers and saying Republican leadership is needed to guarantee changes to MNsure and other aspects of the insurance market.

"It's clear to the people of this state that it hasn't worked, it has devastated our marketplace. We have got to restore it," Hann said. "And you can't trust the people who broke it to fix it."

Politics and Government News

Capitol View®

Brian Bakst

Author

Senate Republicans sketch plan for addressing health care costs if they claim a majority this fall.

Senate GOP promotes plan to revise MNsure

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