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AARP urges cap increase and guaranteed‑issue protections as conferees review consumer restitution language
Summary
AARP Minnesota told the commerce conference committee the crypto‑kiosk language was welcomed, estimated a narrow set of people (about 2,500) lost supplemental Medicare plans, and asked conferees to restore or raise caps on a consumer restitution account — proposing $10 million per year as a compromise.
Thomas Elnas, associate state director of advocacy at AARP Minnesota, testified to the commerce conference committee and urged conferees to adopt language that would protect consumers affected by discontinued Medicare supplement plans and preserve a consumer restitution mechanism. "My name is Thomas Elnas. I serve as the associate state director of advocacy with AARP Minnesota," Elnas said when he began his testimony.
Elnas thanked the committee for including cryptocurrency kiosk language and noted it "has been signed into law." He supported guaranteed‑issue protections for a narrowly defined group of enrollees displaced by discontinued plans and estimated the population impacted by discontinued Medicare supplement coverage to be around 2,500 people, though he characterized that as an approximate figure.
On the consumer restitution account, Elnas and Representative Lee urged restoring a finance change that would increase the cap. Representative Lee told the committee that a prior cap had been $5 million and that the Senate finance proposal would set a $10 million per‑fiscal‑year limit. Representative Lee said the provision had a zero fiscal note and argued it should be treated as a policy matter to include in the conference report.
Why it matters: guaranteed‑issue language affects a limited but clearly identifiable group of enrollees who lost coverage when plans were discontinued; the restitution account cap determines how much money can flow into a fund for consumer restitution and how much each fiscal year the fund might receive.
Next steps: conferees heard follow‑up questions about the size of the impacted population and whether the restitution provision should be included in the report; the committee recessed to reconvene for public testimony and further deliberations.
