There are many vacancies for state boards, councils, and committees. The open positions are currently accepting applications online within 21 days of the “publish date”. There are a variety of openings including the Board of Cosmetology and the Opioid Epidemic Advisory Council. This is an excellent opportunity to utilize your own experience and expertise to serve our state. I encourage you to take a look at the openings and see if there is anything that may be of interest to you. These committees, boards and councils would greatly benefit from hearing a voice from our district!

Reducing Insurance Rates:

Over the last few years, we have been working to reduce insurance premiums. After Obamacare devastated our system in Minnesota, we had to react quickly and develop solutions to mitigate the negative effects. In 2017, we implemented the reinsurance program to subsidize premiums in the private health care market. This fund permitted premiums to reduce. Since then we have continued to see the price trajectory of premiums continue to fall. This year, proposed premium rate changes are in the range of + 1.4% to -4%. The high double-digit increases we have seen in recent years are a thing of the past for now.  It is just an indicator that the efforts we are making at the capitol are accomplishing what we hoped and stabilizing the market. We will continue to work on initiatives to reduce health care costs for all Minnesotans. We are making excellent progress and next session we have more ideas to work on.

Workforce Development Scholarships:

In 2017, Senator Fischbach and Senator Anderson created a Workforce Development Scholarship funding $1 million for a program that gives students access to scholarships to address workforce shortages in industries like skilled manufacturing and healthcare. It improved public/private partnerships around the state and created incentives that supported students and their communities.

This session, we passed an expansion of the program because of its past success, increasing the funding to $7 million and creating hundreds more scholarships for students starting a career in a high-demand occupation. You can find more information on the project here. You or someone you know may be able to benefit from this great program in the future!

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to me any time at 651-296-5655 or sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn.