MINNESOTA – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announces plans he says will hold health insurance providers accountable, save taxpayer dollars and lower health insurance costs.
In 2022 Walz signed legislation to extend Minnesota’s reinsurance program. He says it help stabilizes high health insurance premiums in the individual insurance market. This session Walz says his plan will shift the responsibility for the state’s share of reinsurance to insurers rather than taxpayers. Insurance companies will be required to create a fund that covers high-cost procedures like premature births or cancer treatments for people on the individual market. The governor says his plan also increases the surcharge levied on health maintenance organizations from 0.6 percent to 1.25 percent of total premium revenue to “ensure large health care corporations pay their fair share.”
Walz argues the Trump Administration is pushing for $880 billion in cuts to federal Medicaid through 2034.
“This is a case where the state can and will shore up against some of the most drastic and quite honestly to me some of the more cruel cuts coming from the federal government,” Walz said.
