Lake Minnetonka State Rep: 'Government Health Insurance Exchange Wrong for Minnesota'

by Minnesota State Representative Cindy Pugh (33B)

On Monday March 5, the Minnesota House took up the Health Insurance Exchange bill as part of the Affordable Care Act which requires each state to set up an internet portal for the purchase of health insurance. I have many concerns, one of which is that this is not a free market solution to improve healthcare. Rather, it’s a government-run healthcare exchange laden with excessive state and federal government restrictions, regulations and controls. I remain worried about how this legislation will affect our privacy, our healthcare choices, and believe it will raise costs on consumers.

Never in the history of Minnesota has an entity been created with such enormous power and so little oversight. The legislation creates a seven-member unelected political board authorized to make decisions that will determine healthcare coverage for individuals without legislative oversight or accountability to the voters of Minnesota. Making matters worse, we do not know what private health data this government exchange will collect from Minnesotans, for how long it will be retained, or which other state and federal agencies will have access to that information.

Given the recent news that an employee at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources accessed driver’s license and motor vehicle information of approximately 11,000 Minnesotans (the vast majority of whom were women including several of my legislative colleagues), I am very concerned there are inadequate safeguards in place to protect the personal and confidential information which will be required to access the exchange.

I believe we need stronger protections in place to ensure sensitive information such as financial records, employee-employer records, tax information, and medical information is protected and transparency is increased by government agencies which will have access to this data.

The government exchange will also limit consumer choice and offer no guarantee that we can keep our own plan or doctor, a promise the President made to all Americans. Because the government exchange seeks to control the entire health insurance market, it will limit our choice of insurance coverage and may prevent us from choosing our own doctor. Furthermore, the exchange offers no assurances that self-employed and small business employees will be able to keep their plan or doctor.

The seven-member political panel established by the exchange is authorized to ‘pick the winners and the losers’ by selecting which insurance plans can be sold within the exchange. In fact, the DFL author of the bill even stated in committee that the government exchange will reduce the number of health insurance options from 750 to less than 60. Clearly, this will not result in improved choices for Minnesotans!

In addition to reducing consumer’s choices, the unelected board will need to levy up to a 3.5 percent tax on every plan sold within the government exchange in order to fund its operations. And, because the projected revenue for the exchange is highly dependent upon high participation rates, the fewer individuals that choose to use it, the higher the tax on premiums will be for everyone within the government-run exchange.

As I stated on the House floor, I’m left with a pit in my stomach as to what choices our children and grandchildren are going to have for their future. Minnesota is renowned for being a leader in the delivery of quality healthcare at affordable rates. This is no time to be restricting options and imposing cost increases in order to impose a one-size-fits-all approach to healthcare on our state.

I’ve heard overwhelmingly from my constituents and agree with their verdict—Minnesota can do much better than this.