Gov. Tim Waltz and Secretary of Commerce Grace Arnold spoke on Thursday afternoon about plans to keep individual plans more affordable and save taxpayers dollars.
His proposal would shift some of the reinsurance, where the state is responsible for taxpayers to insurers. It applies to individual insurance markets for those who are not covered through their employers or those eligible for Medicare or Medicaid.
Minnesota's reinsurance program was launched in 2017. In 2022, a five-year extension of the program was passed and signed by Walz. The program was created to help stabilize high health insurance premiums in the market by re-injuring claims for high cost bills in the state-funded dollars.
The proposed reinsurance change requires the insurer to have a fund that covers high-cost procedures.
Walz also proposes increasing the surcharge charged to health maintenance organizations from 0.6% to 1.25% as a way to “ensure large healthcare companies pay a fair share.”
