Sign up quickly to get a place on the testifier list ( email Jenn at jenn.holcomb@house.mn) or just plan to attend! Then, please let us at CCHC know you're coming so we can stand together as a unifed group! Your presence and testimony have been very effective in catching the attention of legislators, the authors of the bill...and even the Governor.
The focus of this hearing: cost of proposals, including the Exchange and impact on the state budget. The costs are said to be $9 million to establish it plus ongoing "assessments" on insurance premiums—taxes—to maintain it. The Exchange Board of Directors will be allowed to set the assessment rate (ie. there's no cap on the tax). No public comment/hearings required.
Expect to be allowed to talk for only 2-3 minutes.
MONDAY, March 17, 2008 6:00 PM Room: 5 State Office Building Chair: Rep. Thomas Huntley Agenda: HF3390 (Loeffler) Initiative to promote public health (pending re-referral) HF3391 (Huntley) Affordable, comprehensive health care reform
YouTube Videos
CCHC President Twila Brase, explains why the Exchange, and the bill's other proposals, are bad ideas.
Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer talks about the dangers of the Health Insurance Exchange
Our appreciation to Minnesota Majority for videotaping these interviews!
(click and send version)
CITIZEN PETITION to the 2008 MN Legislature
OPPOSING the MN HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE – the proposed “Single Seller” Bureaucracy for Buying Health Insurance
I, the undersigned citizen oppose establishing the proposed MN Health Insurance Exchange in Senate File 3099 (Berglin-D/Rosen-R) and House File 3391 (Huntley-D/Thissen-D) because it:
• Threatens the Citizen’s Right to Purchase Health Insurance Privately. All insurers must sell through the Exchange. Individuals could buy insurance outside the Exchange only if they are not in a state program and if insurers choose to sell outside of the Exchange. All enrollees in state programs, and anyone in the proposed subsidized private health insurance plans, would be required to buy health insurance through the Exchange.
• Limits Choice of Health Insurance Options: Employers would have a new insurance mandate and this “Single Seller” Bureaucracy would limit the number of health insurance options available for purchase: Health plans must “offer a maximum of three individual market health plans and three small employer health benefit plans through the exchange…”
• Limits Access to Care Using a Government Benefit Set: “All plans offered must meet the standard benefit set and design established” by the proposed unelected 10-person Health Care Transformation Commission. The benefit set will be limited by the decisions of the proposed unelected 7-member Benefit/Design and 11-member technology committees.
• Creates a Fourth-Party Payer & New Fees: The “Single-Seller” Bureaucracy will have the power to “establish and assess fees on health plan premiums of small employer plans and individual market health plans [ME] to fund the cost of administering the exchange.”
• Creates a Government Bureaucracy with All-Controlling Powers: The Exchange would be created by the legislature and run by 11 unelected political appointees. When the proposed H. C. Transformation Commission ends in 2011, all of its policy-controlling powers must “transfer to the board of directors of the Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange.”
• Will Not Likely Remain Voluntary: “If voluntary use for the Exchange fails to support an adequate individual and small group insurance market, use of the Exchange may need to be mandated.” (MN Health Care Transformation Task Force, source of this proposed legislation)
Please deliver this signed petition to Governor Pawlenty and the legislative leadership.
Signature___________________________________________________Date____________________
Name (PLEASE PRINT) _________________________________________________________________
___I am also a Healthcare Professional (type):_____________________________________________
Address____________________________________City_______________State____Zip___________
Phone__________________________________ Email ______________________________________