Johnson Makes MNsure Woes Central To Campaign
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Republican Jeff Johnson moved Thursday to make health insurance problems a bigger part of his campaign against Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, saying Minnesota's plan for complying with the Affordable Care Act is causing sticker shock as well as logistical headaches.
It was the second time this week that Johnson took aim at Dayton's embrace of the federal health law. He said it "is causing real problems, he's causing real pain to real Minnesotans."
On Tuesday, Johnson criticized Dayton's administration after PreferredOne dropped out of the state health exchange called MNsure, leaving its subscribers to opt next year for plans that aren't subsidized or switch to a new insurance provider. On Thursday, the Hennepin County commissioner appeared at a Minneapolis factory where the owner is bracing for a 34-percent spike in insurance premiums for her 28 employees because she'll have to upgrade their plan to meet minimum federal requirements.
"This is impacting businesses. This is impacting people. This isn't small potatoes," said Jennifer Salisbury, owner of Mack Engineering.
In most states, governors took advantage of a waiver that gave individual and small-group plan holders extra time to buy insurance with extra protections. Dayton didn't.
"Even President Obama saw this fundamental flaw in his Obamacare law and he gave to governors the opportunity to help small businesses. Mark Dayton said no. He wouldn't step up for the Mack Engineerings of Minnesota," Johnson said, adding that he would have backed a waiver.
The Department of Commerce estimates three-quarters of Minnesota businesses with small-group plans have come into compliance with the law, according to spokeswoman Anne O'Connor. An exemption could have penalized them because they would have to absorb costs to compensate for employers with substandard plans.
Dayton and other state Democrats have been highlighting the drop in the rate of uninsured as well as coverage for an expanded array of treatments.
Dayton said Johnson "doesn't know what he's talking about" when assessing the effect on business and argued most Minnesota companies would have been harmed by a waiver.
He said he doesn't consider the health law to be a political liability but wishes backers would be more forceful in its defense.
"I don't think those of us proponents have done a good job of communicating all of the benefits," Dayton said. He added that MNsure "got off to a bad start in Minnesota. It's improving."
Under the law, insurers can't exclude people based on pre-existing conditions and their plans must include coverage for maternity care and hospitalizations and preventative care, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and cancer screenings.
Nationally, the health care issue has played a less prominent role in this campaign season than it did in the previous two elections. With new coverage in place for millions of Americans, Republicans have talked less about repealing the law and have focused instead on technological failures. In Minnesota, the GOP is eagerly awaiting the release of insurance rates ahead of the next open enrollment period, predicting steep jumps that will anger voters.
Johnson's alternative is to petition the federal government to let Minnesota out of the health law's requirements. Short of that, he said he would shake up the MNsure governing structure and fire its top staff. He said he'd also press for more private competition with the government-run marketplace.
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