It wasn’t all that long ago that Minnesota’s health insurance market was on the brink of collapse thanks to MNsure. Remember those days? Every year there were double-digit premium prices, and a lot of families were stuck choosing between paying their health insurance or paying their rent, their grocery bill, or other necessities.
What finally stopped the damage was the reinsurance program we implemented in 2017. It stabilized the market and brought premium increases in check.
Over the first three years after the implementation of the program, premiums decreased by 25.5 percent in Minnesota as compared with an increase of 25.9 percent for the United States overall. The program has led to Minnesota enjoying some of the lowest health insurance rates in the country. Additionally, reinsurance has proven so successful that several other states have created programs since 2017.
Recently we renewed it for another five years. Without it, premiums will spike again. We can’t let that happen.
It passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote, but the House hasn’t taken it up yet.
The Southwest Light Rail disaster
Southwest Light Rail is a light rail line being constructed between Minneapolis and Eden Prairie. It has been a complete mess from the very beginning. It is years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. Recently we have learned that construction has been causing damage to nearby buildings.
It isn’t scheduled to open for several more years, and we really can’t even see the bottom in terms of how much money still might be sunk into it.
There is almost universal agreement that, at minimum, we need to audit Southwest Light Rail. It was unanimous in the Senate. It was nearly unanimous in the House.
We have heard so many horror stories about Southwest Light Rail that it borders on ridiculous. While Republicans have been critical about the program from the start, the overwhelming bipartisan support for this audit tells you just how big of a disaster the project has become. I’m looking forward to getting to the bottom of it.
In addition, there have been calls to halt funding until we at least get the results of the audit back. I wholeheartedly endorse that – we should not spend one more cent on any light rail projects until we figure out how Southwest Light Rail became such a disaster.
Contact me
If you have any questions about the issues we are working on at the legislature, feel free to contact me any time at sen.john.jasinski@senate.mn or 651-296-0284. It is a privilege to serve you!