Health insurance in Minnesota’s individual market will cost less again next year, and a state Senate committee this morning starts trying to figure out how to make that continue in 2020 and beyond. Republicans pushed through “reinsurance” last session to hold down costs, but apparently agree with Governor Mark Dayton that the state can’t continue spending hundreds-of-millions of dollars on it. Senator Michelle Benson from Ham Lake says, “There will be a market-stabilization tool. We don’t know exactly what that will be, but we want the markets to know that we’re not gonna change their environment.”
Democratic candidate for governor Tim Walz has indicated he’d support a phase-in of single-payer health care. Benson responds the state budget can’t afford it unless payments to providers are cut — which she warns would force many in Greater Minnesota out of business.