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Earlier today, Governor Mark Dayton signed Minnesota’s new Health Insurance Exchange, MNSure, into law.  Here’s what Dan McGrath, our Executive Director, had to say on this historic occasion:

“Today, Governor Dayton signed some of the most historic legislation of the past fifty years into state law, ensuring that 1.3 million Minnesotans have access to affordable health care coverage, including 300,000 currently uninsured individuals and over 150,000 employees of small businesses struggling to provide coverage.  MNSure is designed to put the health care needs of Minnesotans as its top priority.

“The new MNSure health care marketplace will ensure that health insurance plans will compete for consumer business in an open and transparent way by allowing consumers to select the plan that meets their budget and health care needs.  MNSure will bring much needed security and financial peace-of-mind to hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans struggling to get the health care they need when they need it.

“For the first time ever, Minnesota health care consumers are on a level playing field with health insurance companies.  This exchange means that individuals, as well as the employees and owners of small businesses, will have the same buying power and control over their health plans as big businesses.

“We appreciate the Governor’s recognition of TakeAction Minnesota’s work in making sure a people-centered health care exchange is now the law of our state, and thank him for being a tenacious leader in making today’s signing a reality.  We look forward to MNSure’s implementation in the coming months and will work to make sure its promise is realized for the people of Minnesota.”

After years of work, the creation of Minnesota’s new Health Exchange is heading into the final stretch. It is in its final committees now, and we expect it to head to the full legislature as early as next week. 

Two of the most critical elements – the ability of our Exchange to negotiate for Minnesotans and a board free from financial conflicts of interest – are still in the bill, but the insurance industry has lobbied aggressively to have them removed, and committee votes have been razor thin. Earlier this week, a House committee voted to preserve the power to negotiate by only one vote. Even two Democrats voted on the side of the insurance industry.

These next few weeks are going to be a critical moment to have your voice heard. Stay tuned – get ready to contact your legislators to make that your voice is heard above that of the insurance industry.

We’ll be in touch, and together, we’ll make sure Minnesota’s Exchange is created with people at the center.

Sarah Greenfield 

Sarah is TakeAction Minnesota’s Health Care Program Manager.

This blog is reposted from the Land Stewardship Project, one of our key allies in our work to make sure Minnesota’s Health Benefits Exchange is built with people at the center, not insurance industry profits. You can view it in its original form here. 

For the past year the Land Stewardship Project and our allies have been organizing to make sure Minnesota moves forward, not backward, under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). It’s clear that our current health care system is failing working people across the state—including urban people, rural people and farmers.

In fact, lack of access to affordable care is one of the major impediments to beginning farmers getting started. And in farm families it’s very common for one spouse to take an off-farm job to get health insurance benefits. This makes it more difficult to build an economically viable family farm—a situation that’s particularly challenging for livestock operations.

The other options are hardly better: purchasing expensive insurance on the corporate-dominated private market, which is often inadequate to meet people’s needs; or joining the 9.1 percent of Minnesotans who take the risk of going without health insurance coverage.

A Health Insurance Exchange Governed by the People

That’s why LSP has been organizing with allies across the state to win changes in our health care system that start to put the power back in the hands of the people. And we’re making progress: Last week Senator Tony Lourey (DFL-Kerrick) and Representative Joe Atkins (DFL-Inver Grove Heights) introduced a bill that would create a people-centered health exchange in Minnesota.

Under the Affordable Care Act, each state is required to have an insurance exchange, which is supposed to help people and small businesses access the private insurance market in a way that’s less complicated and offers more affordable options. But the devil’s in the details, and this kind of exchange is only going to work if it reins in the power of the corporate HMOs and puts more control in the hands of real people.

The Lourey/Atkins bill, as introduced (the Senate bill is here; House version here), does just that. It would bar HMOs and corporate representatives with a conflict of interest from the health care exchange board—making the board representative of people, not corporate “stakeholders.” The bill also makes it possible for this people’s exchange board to negotiate with the HMOs in such a way that it  prevents these corporations from filling the exchange with messy, complicated policies with hidden costs and false choices. As an “active purchaser,” the exchange will be able to require the HMOs to provide clear options that are both better and easier to compare.

The corporate interests on the other side know how strong this bill is, and we’re already hearing from state legislators that the pressure is on to strip the exchange of the provisions that make it good for people. LSP is going to stay in the fight, making sure we don’t let the corporate interests get in there and weaken the exchange. There’s also room to make some parts better, including making sure the “navigators” who will help people use the exchange are folks who people can trust, not paid or commissioned representatives of the insurance industry.

Preserving and improving MinnesotaCare as a Basic Health Plan

LSP is also quite aware that this exchange is not a step forward for everyone in Minnesota. For 20 years Minnesota has been a national leader in health care policy through the legacy of our MinnesotaCare program. For people currently in MinnesotaCare, losing this effective program and going into the exchange would be a giant step backward, but that is what will happen unless the Legislature, the Governor and the federal government take appropriate action.

Last week, LSP staff and members of LSP’s Health Care Organizing Committee—Heidi Morlock and Chad Kingstrom—met with Governor Mark Dayton’s Commissioner of Human Services, Cindy Jesson, to talk about the opportunity to keep and improve MinnesotaCare under the Affordable Care Act. This could be done by moving MinnesotaCare forward as a Basic Health Plan. Commissioner Jesson committed to fighting for MinnesotaCare, saying she would “pull out all the stops” to make sure Minnesota is able to continue its legacy of providing health insurance for lower-income people below 200 percent to 275 percent of the poverty line.

The Legislature is moving the exchange bill forward, and now is the time to introduce a bill that builds on the legacy of MinnesotaCare. But Minnesota is not getting the go-ahead it needs from the Obama Administration to advance a Basic Health Plan that maintains the critical functions of MinnesotaCare for lower-income Minnesotans.

Senator Al Franken is leading the charge to get the Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services to grant Minnesota the ability to keep, expand and improve MinnesotaCare. When we met with Franken, organizational allies and Minnesota state legislators on Jan. 11, the Senator made a strong case for standing up for MinnesotaCare and committed to continue his leadership on the issue. Senator Amy Klobuchar is also committed to urging the Obama Administration to allow Minnesota to move forward on this issue.

In the coming weeks, LSP will continue to push the Obama Administration to allow Minnesota to continue our state’s leadership in providing access to affordable care to lower-income people, including those in rural Minnesota.

Minnesota should be moving toward a health care system that works for everyone, no exceptions. A strong people-centered health care exchange, along with a Basic Health Plan grown out of the legacy of MinnesotaCare, are solid steps in the right direction.

Megan Buckingham and Paul Sobocinski are policy organizers who work with LSP’s Health Care Organizing Committee to advance a health care system that works for all people, no exceptions. Buckingham can be reached at 612-722-6377 and Sobocinski at 507-342-2323.

An important campaign that many Minnesotans don’t even know about is rapidly coming to a conclusion. The vote is likely going to take place early next week, if it happens at all. Most of us know the Senate is broken. The current Senate rules enable obstruction and block progress on a range of issues key to America’s future. In past years, our nation was able to move forward on landmark legislation that put in place workers’ rights, civil rights, retirement security for seniors and so much more.

We know it’s no longer a question of a majority vote making decisions on critical legislation. We know gridlock rules the decision making process in the Senate. The filibuster used to be an important tool that gave the minority a real voice in the Senate. Not anymore. For too long now, this tactic has been misused and abused. Congress has stopped legislating effectively, with Senators using ridiculous dodge tactics to block real progress. Today, majority rule in the Senate is the exception, not the rule.

We know we can do better. 70% of Americans agree and think substantive change is needed in the Senate rules.

This is our chance to reform the Senate rules so that Senators debate and vote on critical legislation. Demand change: call your Senators immediately at 1-877-782-8274.

When your call is answered say: “I’m calling to ask that the Senator vote for real Senate rules reform and co-sponsor Senate resolutions 4 & 6. Please support meaningful Senate rules reform.”

Call that same number a second time and you will be connected to your other Senator. Leave the same message. That’s all it takes to help protect our democracy. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes.

Twitter users! It’s easy for you to tell Senate Democrats and Independents to co-sponsor Senate Resolution 4, the Senate rules reform legislation we’ve all been fighting so hard for. Check out this page to find your state to send a Tweet! http://bit.ly/VsPeRQ

The Alliance for Justice, the Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Sierra Club, and the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) and 44 other organizations are calling for substantive Senate reforms.

“Facing unparalleled challenges—a languid economic recovery, crushing debt, and threats at home and abroad—the country cannot afford another two years of inaction fostered by outmoded and broken legislative institutions. We believe that common sense reforms will end routine and reflexive obstruction and will ensure that the Senate will once again be able to address the critical issues facing our country.”

These reforms boil down to four commonsense reforms:

1. There should be only one chance to filibuster. Today, there are four chances
2. If you want to filibuster, you must actually stand on the floor and speak just like Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith goes to Washington.” Now you can literally call in your filibuster.
3. The burden should be on the minority who wants to halt legislation, not the majority that wants to proceed.
4. Shorten post filibuster debate time for nominations.

These reforms are in the best interest of our democratic system.  Recalibrating the filibuster would revive the Senate as a truly deliberative body by encouraging Senators to discuss and debate the vital issues our country must address.  Requiring those wishing to slow down or halt legislation through the Senate rules to do so publically on the Senate floor would raise the costs of obstruction so that the filibuster is reserved for instances in which a dedicated minority is intensely opposed to legislation.  These much needed reforms would restore accountability on both sides of the aisle.

Silent sometimes anonymous actions taken by Senators have delayed much needed judicial appointments denying justice to those waiting for their day in court. Currently threats to block the nominations of President Obama’s executive branch nominees are underscoring the need for substantial Senate rules reform. Manipulation of the rules has stopped progress on a jobs bill for veterans, the DREAM Act, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the Employee Free Choice Act and the Bring Jobs Home Act to name a few.

We have a chance to restore the filibuster to its original purpose, but we need your help to do it. Pick up the phone right now and urge your Senator to support Senate Rules Reform. Call 1-877-782-8274 and say: “I’m calling to ask that the Senator vote for real Senate rules reform and co-sponsor Senate resolutions 4 & 6. Please support meaningful Senate rules reform.” Call that same number a second time and you will be connected to your other Senator. Leave the same message.

That’s all it takes to help protect our democracy. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes.

Media outlets in 26 states are calling for this reform to take place. Some media outlets report that the Senate is possibly headed for only “modest” Senate rules changes, leading reformers are escalating public efforts in support of more substantial reforms, similar to those strongly supported by the American people. The Senate Needs More than “Modest” Reform. Rather than a handshake agreement that will likely cement the Senate status quo, we need our Senators to work to realize substantial and actual Senate rules changes. Majority leader Senator Harry Reid said in May 2012, “If there were anything that ever needed changing in this body, it’s the filibuster rules, because it’s been abused, abused, abused.”

Help fix this! We are all in this together. For more information go to Fix The Senate Now

“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral” – Freire.

– Doug Williams, IUE-CWA

Health Care Leader Abby Schanfield gets out the vote to defeat the Voter Restriction Amendment.

Throughout the summer and fall, TakeAction health care team members pounded the pavement and called thousands of voters, asking them to vote no on November 6th. Last week, we saw the result of all that work as two hateful amendments were defeated in our state. Saying no to those amendments felt great. And seeing them both defeated felt even better.

But now, a week later, we’re ready to say goodbye to no and move on to yes. And as we look to the health care work TakeAction Minnesota will be doing this legislative session, we feel a sense of that “yes” most clearly in the opportunity we have to improve and expand our MinnesotaCare program.

This session, our newly elected legislature will have the chance to make major and long lasting changes to our state’s health care system through the creation of what’s called a Basic Health Plan. A key part of the Affordable Care Act, the Basic Health Plan would mean maintaining, improving and expanding the current MinnesotaCare program in our state.

It would mean saying yes to a healthier Minnesota – the Basic Health Plan will provide affordable, high-quality health care to 120,000 people in our state, some of whom are currently on MinnesotaCare and some of whom would be newly covered.

It would mean saying yes to a more stable state budget – the Basic Health Plan draws down more federal dollars than we’ve had access to before, making it a good deal for our state budget.

It means saying yes to a stronger public health care system in our state in both the near term and the longer term – the Basic Health Plan allows us to build new and improved health care infrastructure, the kind of infrastructure we need as we envision a state where EVERYONE has access to affordable coverage.

This session, TakeAction Minnesota, along with allies from around the state, will be asking our newly elected representatives to vote yes to create a Basic Health Plan in our state. And as happy as we were to be part of the vote no movement during this past election cycle, we’re even more excited about moving forward and saying “yes” to the health of our state.

Elizabeth Lienesch

Elizabeth is TakeAction Minnesota’s Deputy Training & Organizing Director. She is leading our work to protect and expand MinnesotaCare in 2013.