ST. PAUL – For the third consecutive year, reforms enacted in 2017 have helped reduce or hold flat individual market health insurance rates after years of double-digit increases following the implementation of Obamacare in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce recently released final rates for the 2020 individual insurance market. The agency indicates all five of the carriers on the individual market are lowering premiums or effectively holding premiums flat for 2020, with average rates ranging between a .18-percent increase and a 20-percent decrease.
“It is good to see the reform we enacted in 2017 continues to help us get a handle on health insurance premiums that had previously been skyrocketing on the individual market,” said state Rep. Paul Anderson, R-Starbuck. “While we must continue working to increase affordability, accessibility and consumer choice in health care, it is encouraging to know reform House Republicans already led to law is delivering real relief to Minnesotans.”
According to a news release from MNsure, there will be 39 more health plan options in 2020, and every county will have at least two offerings in the individual market.
From 2014-2017, average rates increased by double digits every year, including up to 67 percent for 2017. Thanks to those reforms enacted in 2017, individual market rates for 2018 and 2019 remained flat or were reduced for most Minnesotans on the individual market.
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