Dayton, Daudt Will Meet To Discuss Rising Health Care Costs

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Gov. Mark Dayton will meet with House Speaker Kurt Daudt Tuesday morning to talk about providing relief for those hardest hit by rising health care premiums.

Tuesday morning is also when the open enrollment period for MNsure begins.

MNsure is bracing for a surge of traffic Tuesday as consumers rush to sign up for plans that have limited enrollment.

While most Minnesotans get their insurance through their employer, about 5 percent have to buy individual policies.

Of that 5 percent, an estimated 123,000 people don't qualify for tax breaks on their premiums.

And with prices jumping by as much as 67 percent there is pressure on elected officials to provide some form of relief.

All sides say they want to come up with some form of relief for those hardest hit.

And with all 201 members of the state legislature up for election a week from Tuesday the pressure is enormous.

They will have to work quickly, the deadline for enrolling for coverage that starts Jan. 1 is Dec. 15.

Last week Daudt had this to say about the governor's handling of the rate hike crisis.

"If I find out that those people aren't working 24/7 to find a solution to help these people get health insurance on January 1st, I am going to call for Dayton's resignation myself personally," Daudt said.

Monday the speaker sounded more conciliatory.

"We obviously are on board with a fix but its not just the financial, there's also the fact that folks need to have the choice and the access," Daudt said.

Dayton's proposed fix for 2017 is that the 123,000 people who make too much money for a tax break would get  25 percent monthly rebates on their premiums -- the money would come from the state's budget surplus.

But Daudt and other Republicans question who would administer the rebate plan.

"How does this get administered? Who checks for waste and fraud? How do we know the right people are getting it?" Republican Senate Minority Leader David Hann said.

Another concern: Four of the five MNsure insurance providers have limited the number of people they will enroll -- which means thousands are expected to sign up when enrollment opens at 6 a.m. Tuesday.

"We do have some concern about whether or not MNsure will be able to handle the traffic," Daudt said.

Democrats say they have gotten assurances that MNsure is ready.

"People are going to have to probably -- understanding that this is going to be like a Black Friday, you know, for shopping -- that they're going to have to have a little bit of patience," DFL House Minority Leader Paul Thissen said.

Another sticking point:  What the governor is proposing is a temporary fix for just 2017.  Republicans want Democrats to address a larger permanent fix so that the state is not in the same situation next year. And that's a problem because any larger fix would also have to happen at the congressional level.

The situation is so grave that Dayton in a radio interview acknowledged MNsure might not survive.

"We will see how it performs," Dayton said.