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| Date: | March 5, 2012 | | Contact Name: | Peter Winiecki | | Contact Phone: | 651-297-8077 | | Contact Email: | peter.winiecki@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
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| REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS INTRODUCE FREE MARKET
HEALTH CARE INSURANCE REFORM BILL Legislation permits entities to administer unified personal health premium accounts |
St. Paul – Representative Steve Gottwalt (R-St. Cloud) and Senator David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) today announced the introduction of a free market health care insurance reform bill that would permit certain entities to administer unified personal health premium accounts.
“This legislation provides the first step to creating a functional health care alternative that is consumer-driven and market-based,” Representative Gottwalt stated. “Minnesota is a national health care leader and already has the tools and programs in place to provide uninsured Minnesotans appropriate coverage. This bill will further allow us to provide coverage in a way that is sustainable and effective, while using the strengths of the state’s private market.”
The new health care insurance legislation would create a mechanism for individuals to pool money from multiples sources in order to afford insurance premiums in the private market. Individuals and their employers, as well as family members, charitable organizations, and other sources, would have the capacity to add funds to unified personal health premium account.
“This legislation expands health insurance choice, competition, and coverage,” Senator Hann explained. “It also underscores the need to insure part-time workers, creating a process whereby multiple employers will be in communication with one another and comfortable with making contributions that an employee can use for health care premiums.”
“We know the promise of federal government subsidies is a hollow promise,” Representative Gottwalt said. “We can create a health care alternative with the nation-leading resources we already have in Minnesota. We are going to do it the Minnesota way.”
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