2023 session outcomes: Health care

The Minnesota Chamber advocates for health care policies that ensure quality health care is affordable and accessible to all Minnesotans and that enhances and supports the ability of employers to provide coverage to their employees. Unfortunately, in the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers passed policies that will increase costs and jeopardize access to doctors, hospitals and treatments.

Health care mandates: Numerous new health care mandates from the state will contribute to already increasing health care costs for employers. Minnesota already has the secondlongest list of required coverages in the country, at more than 60. These requirements were put in place to help a segment of our population, but each comes with a cost. This year the legislature added another six. As a result, the Department of Commerce says that premiums in the state’s fully insured market are expected to rise $113 million in the first year alone.

Public health care expansion: This session, the Legislature also set us on the path of allowing anyone, regardless of income, to “buy in” to the state public health insurance programs that are designed and intended for the lowest income Minnesotans. Changing public programs, which pay health care providers significantly less than the commercial rate, into an expanded government-sponsored health insurance option that is available to any Minnesotan, regardless of income, will lead to significant financial impact on providers and hospitals – especially practices that operate on already narrow margins in rural areas and underserved communities. This may further reduce access to critical care and services in some parts of the state. It will also lead to increased costs for those with private coverage – whether fully-insured or self-funded – because health care providers will likely shift even more costs to these Minnesotans.

WATCH: 2023 Statewide Policy Tour discussion on health care
 

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