Health Care Reform

 

Minnesota has long been a leader in health care innovation and our employee insurance coverage ranks near the top in the United States. As a chamber of commerce, we represent large and small businesses. Our members want changes and improvements in the cost and delivery of health care coverage.

We acknowledge the facts, our health care system is not sustainable, and by 2018, spending on health care will comprise 20% of the GDP. Employers cannot continue to absorb these increased costs.

That being said, a wholesale shift to a government run plan would increase costs to employers, stifle innovation and shift service delivery to a politically based bureaucracy, with the federal government administering the plan, determining benefits premiums, and payments to providers. A change this immense will also derail the need to address the root of the problem, rising costs, and improvement of quality in the health care system.

We strongly urge policy makers to proceed with great caution when considering health care reforms. Reform proposals envision a system that will allow all individuals to purchase health care coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, employment status, and provide for low and moderate income subsidies. We must consider a common sense approach that builds on the private insurance market, and system free to innovate, respond quickly to patients’ needs or implement changes to the system that improve quality and reduce costs. We believe that a system predicated on the strengths of the current system will be a more effective path to universal health care coverage.

 

NEWS

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Minnesotans can now compare the costs and quality of health care providers on a single website under a initiative unveiled Wednesday, August 26, by Governor Tim Pawlenty and other health interests involved in the project. Minnesota is the first state to launch a "one-stop comparison shopping web site" that lists the average price paid by health insurance plans for 100 of the most common medical procedures, Pawlenty said a Capitol news conference. "If we're going to move towards comsumer empowerment in health care reform and more consumer choice in the health care delivery system, we have to give consumers and purchasers better information. This web site will do that, he said.

The new state web site - www.mnhealthscores.org - allows consumers to compare the average price health insurance plans pay for 100 of the most commom medical procedures.

Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 8/26/09 www.twincities.com "State site has data on health care costs"

 

Resources

Minnesota's Health Care Reform Initiative

In May 2008 Governor Pawlenty signed significant health care reform legislation into law. The reforms include recommendations from the Governor's Health Care Transformation Task Force and the Legislature's Health Care Access Commission. This comprehensive health care reform package will make significant progress towards achieving quality, affordable, accessible health care for all Minnesotans. Access the initiative here

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Minnesota Health Information Clearinghouse

The Minnesota Health Information Clearinghouse provides information and publications on health coverage options. This information can be useful when consumers are looking for health care coverage in Minnesota. Access the clearinghouse here

 

Background

What are Minnesota's health care challenges?

Rising costs

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, total state spending on health care rose to $24.8 billion in 2003 (About 3 percent of Minnesota's economy) while health insurance premiums rose by over 60% cumulatively from 1999 to 2005. Nationally, data from the Kaiser Family Foundation show that health insurance premiums - though down from peak levels - are currenly increasing at a rate of 7.7 percent annually. This is still nearly twice the rate of inflation (3.5 percent) and worker's earnings (3.8 percent) making it increasingly difficult for both business owners and employees and their families to afford health insurance.

  

Aging population

As the baby boom generation ages, the age distribution of Minnesota's population is shifting upward. Between 2000 and 2030, Minnesota's populations age 60 or older will more than double, accounting for over one quarter(26 percent) of the

population in 2030. As people get older, their use of health care services increases. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, hospitalization  rates increase dramatically beginning around age 55, while those 65 and older have about twice as many physicians visits per year than the population as a whole.

Transparency challenges

Most Minnesota households pay less than a third of the cost of health care directly from their own pockets. The rest is paid by employers and government through use of tax dollars for public health programs, depressed increases in wages or other benefits, and generally higher prices for product and services. In addition, health care decisions are made by people who do not pay for those services. This disconnect results in higher prices for everyone because the individual making the choices has no idea how much a service costs, and therefore no incentive or ability to choose cost-effective services.

Lack of competition

The health market in Minnesota is characterized by some of the highest market consolidation in the country among both health plans and providers, which can lead to a lack of competition and higher prices. Government regulation also contributes to the difficulty for the new providers and health plans to enter the Minnesota market, and limits the options available to purchasers of all types. Competition in all form will increase the choices available for consumers and help push the market toward higher quality and more cost-effective care.

 

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