|
|
SEIU applauds health exchange bill, but will seek improvements
6 March 2013
| ST. PAUL - Members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota applauded Minnesota legislators who voted this week to approve a Minnesota-based Health Insurance Exchange. |
The bill, which implements a major provision of the federal Affordable Care Act, will provide Minnesotan individuals and small businesses with a new option for affordable healthcare.
"For healthcare workers, there is nothing harder than turning away a sick patient just because they don't have insurance,” said Elise Urman, a licensed practical nurse and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Executive Board member. “This Exchange bill means there will be 300,000 Minnesotans who no longer have to worry about being turned away when they are sick."
SEIU has strongly supported the provision in H.F. 5 that prevents insurance company employees and others doing business with the Exchange from serving on the Exchange Board. In addition, the bill finances the Exchange through a premium withhold, so that operating funds will come from the groups that stand to profit most from new subsidies through the Exchange: insurance companies. This is a more reasonable and equitable financing mechanism than the one found in the Senate’s Exchange bill.
However, SEIU will seek to strengthen the smart purchaser language before the bill is finalized, as this tool will allow the Exchange to strike the best deal for consumers and small-business employees, serving the best interests of Minnesotan citizens, not insurance companies.
According to a poll by the AARP, 74 percent of Minnesotans support an Exchange that can negotiate for consumers and small-business employees. While the House bill includes language that appears to give the Exchange board smart purchaser authority, that authority will only apply after hundreds of health plans – many of which may be low-value health plans – receive automatic entry into the Exchange.
"If the Exchange Board does not have real power to negotiate with insurers, consumers will lose out on the Affordable Care Act’s promise of offering higher quality, lower cost plans through the new Exchange,” said Kathy Meyer, a SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Executive Board member.
The bill was passed with bipartisan support after a series of lengthy hearings and an array of amendments. |
|
|
|
