Senate committee advances bill to continue Minnesota reinsurance program, sets $512 million state share

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee on Jan. 30 recommended passage of Senate File 333, a bill to continue the state's reinsurance program known as the Premium Security Plan, and adopted an oral amendment increasing the bill's projected two‑year state share to $512 million.

The committee approved an author's amendment to place the bill in its preferred form and then, after public testimony and committee discussion, Senator Dames moved an oral amendment replacing a $413 million figure in the bill with $512 million. The committee adopted the oral amendment and then voted to move the bill, as amended, to the Health and Human Services Committee.

The bill and testimony centered on the Minnesota Premium Security Plan, a state reinsurance program authorized under a Section 1332 waiver of the Affordable Care Act that reimburses a portion of very high individual‑market medical claims. Julia Dreyer, Deputy Commissioner of Insurance at the Minnesota Department of Commerce, told the committee, “Without action this year the premium security plan will be depleted and Minnesotans on the individual market are at significant risk of a 25% premium increase in the individual market.”

Why it matters: roughly 187,000 Minnesotans get coverage through the individual…