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Matt Mikus
Moorhead, Minn.

State health insurers eye lower premiums for 2019

Daniel Schriemer helps a woman sign up for subsidized health insurance.
Daniel Schriemer, a navigator at St. Paul nonprofit Portico Healthnet, works with a woman signing herself and two daughters up for publicly-subsidized health insurance in 2017.
Brian Bakst | MPR News

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Minnesota health insurers are proposing mostly lower premium rates for next year's state's individual health insurance market, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The biggest one-year declines would come from Medica, with a proposed 12.4 percent decrease; Blue Plus, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota product, sees premiums 11.8 percent lower, according to 2019 proposed rates data released Friday by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

Group Health and UCare proposed 7.4 percent and 7 percent decreases respectively, while PreferredOne pitched a 3 percent decrease for next year.

The state's $500 million financial safety net program for insurers is a factor in stabilizing the individual market, said Commerce Commissioner Jessica Looman.

"We're happy to see that there is remaining coverage in every county and in every county but four counties in the state there will be actually at least two plan offerings in the individual market," Looman said. "It does look like the individual market is stabilizing."

The actual rate change in 2019 can vary based on factors like the specific plan, where the customer lives and age.

Looman said the department will review the proposals and final rates may be different. Final, approved 2019 rates will be announced by Oct. 2. The 2019 open enrollment period to buy health insurance begins Nov. 1.

About 4 percent of Minnesotans buy health insurance in the individual market rather than through employers or public programs such as MinnesotaCare.

MPR News editor Bill Catlin contributed to this report.