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Dairy farmer Sheri Sexton and adjunct college professor Tracie Loeffler put a face Tuesday on the health care cost crisis Minnesota lawmakers are trying mightily to solve, with both women saying their family insurance premium now rivals the monthly mortgage.

Sexton and Loeffler were among individual insurance shoppers to join Gov. Mark Dayton in an urgent plea for action on a premium relief plan that has been caught in legislative limbo.

"We're burning through our savings just to pay for basic health care, and that's not right," said Loeffler, of St. Paul.

Sexton said her Millville, Minn., farm family saw their monthly premium rise from $1585 last year to $2,197 after a switch in carriers when their old insurer pulled out of the individual marketplace. That comes with a $13,000 deductible. Going without insurance -- and paying a federal penalty -- was not an option given her bout with breast cancer. They are in line for a $6,700 rebate if a 25 percent price break is adopted for 2017 premiums.

Sexton and her husband joke about one of them getting a job off the farm to qualify for employer-paid insurance. "Sometimes I say I'll just work for benefits because that alone is worth $2,000 versus even being paid for salary," she said.

Of the standoff between DFL Dayton and the Republican-led Legislature, Sexton said it's frustrating to watch with her family's well-being in the balance.

"They all agree on yes, we need to do something with health care, but yet nobody wants to get together and give up their hatchet and say let's agree on this," Sexton said, adding, "Nobody wants to give in."

The dispute centers on how the aid gets delivered. Dayton wants health plans to administer it and provide discounts to any individual market insurance customer who doesn't receive federal subsidies; Republicans want to route checks through a state agency and apply income caps. Dayton's administration argues that involving the agency would delay aid by many months even as it acknowledges lag time in distributing relief through the insurance companies.

But Dayton repeated at a the press conference where Sexton and Loeffler were featured speakers that passing a plan swiftly is also about providing certainty to customers nearing a Jan. 31 sign-up deadline for 2017 insurance, which people must carry under the federal Affordable Care Act.

"People are making decisions about what can they afford. Can they afford to buy health insurance at all for this year? Much less what quality of health insurance they can afford, and those are decisions are very much dependent on the assurance of this health care relief," Dayton said.

Another hangup is whether the relief bill contains broader fixes to the individual insurance system. Republicans are proposing to set up a pool to help people with acute conditions pay for out-of-network care if they lost a doctor due to churning in the insurance market. Dayton said he supports that.

But the GOP also wants to allow for-profit insurers to compete in Minnesota's market, which is now limited to nonprofit carriers. And they hope to establish a reinsurance program to help shield insurance companies from giant claims. That would depend on some entity, possibly the state, coming up with $150 million or more to provide backup coverage.

Dayton said he's willing to have that debate later, vowing to sign "a comprehensive" overhaul bill later in the session.

Rep. Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston and co-chairman of a legislative oversight panel on MNsure, said it's imperative that leaders also address other problems with health insurance and shouldn't wait to do so.

"It's very very important that we get relief. But we can get all the relief out there in the world, but if people have no access, that's a real real problem," Davids said. "In my area, there are no all-access plans available because Obamacare has destroyed the private market."

The House is on course to vote on its version of a health relief bill this week; the Senate approved one last week. Because the plans differ, negotiations on a compromise plan could stretch into next week or beyond.

Davids said the Jan. 31 deadline might not be as key as Dayton portrays.

"I think most people have already made the decision to purchase or not to purchase because government has put people in a difficult situation: You can either face bankruptcy or breaking the law," Davids said. "That's not where government should be putting its citizens."

Politics and Government News

Capitol View®

Brian Bakst

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