Governor Mark Dayton will be in Washington D-C later this week pushing the federal government to give Minnesota permission to implement a “reinsurance” plan the state legislature approved earlier this year in an effort to control health insurance premiums. Dayton says the U-S Health and Human Services Department determined the state’s application for a waiver is complete and now there’s up to six months for public comment and review. Dayton says, “One of the main meetings will be with Secretary [Tom] Price and the new director of CMS, and ask that they expedite that review as rapidly as possible.”
Under “reinsurance,” the state picks up the cost of care for the most seriously-ill Minnesotans, which officials say will hold down increases in health insurance premiums for everyone else.