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on October 30, 2015
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Document Reveals Commerce Pressured PreferredOne to Make Unreasonable Assumptions to Justify Low Rates

Written by Peter Nelson
in Health Care

Last week news broke from the Star Tribune that the Minnesota Department of Commerce “asked” PreferredOne to lower rates.  At the same time the Star Tribune was developing their story, I was looking into the same documents on the Commerce website and found other insurers were also pressured to lower rates, which I reported on in American Experiment’s blog.  However, it wasn’t clear how far Commerce went to pressure companies because, as I noted, there is a “troubling lack of transparency and consistency in insurance regulatory filings.” Since then I reread the Commerce press release from September 6, 2013 announcing the...

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on October 30, 2015
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Brookings study reveals Minnesota’s individual insurance market is not faring well under ACA

Written by Peter Nelson
in Health Care

A new study published by the Brookings Institution reveals the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is imposing far more volatility and harm on people in Minnesota’s individual market than elsewhere. The study, by Yale economist Amanda Kowalski, takes “an early look at the impact of the ACA on the individual health insurance market.”  It compares state-by-state coverage levels, insurance premiums and insurance costs in the first two quarters of 2014 to estimates of what they would have been if the ACA had not been implemented this year.  These estimates are created by extending pre-ACA trends going back to 2008. ...

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on October 24, 2015
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More insurers pressured to lower MNsure rates: Time to remove politics from rate-setting process

Written by Peter Nelson
in Health Care

The Star Tribune reported yesterday that the Minnesota Department of Commerce “asked” PreferredOne to lower insurance rates in the MNsure exchange last year.  The July 2013 letter referenced in the story reveals the company lowered rates twice in response to Commerce “objections.” PreferredOne ultimately agreed to lower rates by 37 percent from its initial proposal, which resulted in the company offering the lowest rates in the nation.  Governor Dayton’s administration celebrated these low rates throughout the year, all of which helped dial down the political heat from MNsure’s botched rollout. “Now,” according to the Star Tribune, “those subscribers face an average premium...

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on June 25, 2015
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Supreme Court renames Obamacare SCOTUScare: Court offers to write all future legislation for Congress to save time and face

Written by Kim Crockett
in Health Care

Good news from the Supreme Court today: If you like your health care subsidies, you can keep them. If you like limited government and the separation of powers, you are out of luck. Now that Chief Justice Roberts and five of his colleagues found that the phrase “Exchange established by the State” means “Exchange established by the State or the Federal Government,” we should henceforth follow Justice Scalia’s suggestion that this act of Congress, which had to be passed before the People knew what was in it and then had to be rescued not once, but twice, by a complicit Supreme...

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on June 25, 2015
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Where does the King v. Burwell ruling leave us today?

Written by Peter Nelson
in Health Care

Today the Supreme Court held federal tax credits to fund health insurance coverage will continue to flow through thefederal health insurance exchange.  The holding cements the ACA as the law of the land for the near term and puts the long-term future of the law back in the hands of the American people and who they elect. The challengers in King v. Burwell had argued federal tax credits are only available through an Exchange established by a State and not an Exchange established by the federal government.  The language of the ACA plainly states tax credits are only available to people...

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