Statement on 2019 premium rates for
Minnesotans who buy their own insurance
“The Minnesota approach is working. Health care is still too expensive, but Minnesota is doing better than most states to keep a handle on rising insurance premiums for people who buy insurance on their own. While people in other states are increases in health insurance premiums for 2019, Minnesotans are seeing average decreases from 7 to 28 percent.
Those decreases are because the state put in place the Minnesota Premium Security Plan which helps Minnesotans who buy insurance on their own —it helps pay high medical bills, so they aren’t added into monthly premiums.
This practical approach known as reinsurance keeps health insurance premiums in check, despite the expense of medical care. While reinsurance doesn’t make care less expensive, it does a lot to keep health insurance premiums from rising. This video explains how important it is to share medical bills.
Minnesotans need the state to renew reinsurance, because we know it works. Unless the legislature and the next governor use money already set aside for the program and renew it, our reinsurance program will end—and Minnesotan will experience the same steep increases other states have been seeing.”
—Jim Schowalter, president, Minnesota Council of Health Plans