Decision hits people across our state
Minnesotans need to know what to expect. The latest news does not help. Risk adjustment is federal law and should be followed. Changes now hurt Minnesotans who are doing everything they can to make sure families can get care.
This decision means two things for people who buy insurance on their own or get it through work at a small business:
1) the premiums they pay each month go up more than before
2) the options they’ll have are less certain
It is yet another decision from DC that hits every community our state. Risk Adjustment:
- Helps ensure options. Makes it possible for people who already have an illness to choose their own insurance.
- Offers certainty where little exists. If I have an insurance policy with a company that for some reason has more people with serious illness than another company, I don’t have to worry.
- Costs taxpayers nothing. It is one insurer paying another based on established rules.
Insurance experts, called actuaries, set the premiums we pay each month. To do that, they balance what medical bills will be in the future with what is needed to pay those bills. Risk adjustment is part of that balance.
―Jim Schowalter, president, Minnesota Council of Health Plans
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