Senate Republicans call for Dayton to shake up his board and release next year’s rates early

(St. Paul, MN…) Minnesota Senate Republicans called on Gov. Mark Dayton to assume full responsibility for the continued failures of MNsure and begin to live up to the promises made when he committed the state to President Obama’s national healthcare program. Specifically, Republicans called on Dayton to change the make-up of the MNsure Board, work with them on structural changes to the board and release the 2015 rates earlier than currently planned.

Republicans cited a recent report from Deloitte Consulting showing only one third of the MNsure system working as expected as Minnesotans head into this fall’s enrollment period. The Deloitte report is the latest in a year-long series of failures for Gov. Dayton’s signature legislative accomplishment.

Technical problems have plagued the MNsure website since its launch in October 2013. Enrollment numbers for private insurance plans and small businesses have fallen woefully short, putting the program in financial jeopardy after the federal funding runs out this year. The executive director had to resign, thousands of social security numbers of Minnesotans were put at risk and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced off health insurance plans they preferred.

“Gov. Dayton did nothing about MNsure during the last legislative session,” said Senate Republican Leader David Hann (Eden Prairie). “It’s time he takes responsibility for this experiment in nationalized healthcare and his hand-picked MNsure Board. We thought the October 2013 MNsure failure was a wake-up call, but clearly Gov. Dayton hit the snooze button and went back to sleep. The people of Minnesota are tired of dealing with this subpar healthcare program – something has to change.”

The recent report from Deloitte shows the MNsure system is still in disarray and will not even be ready for the next enrollment process in November. The report said MNsure is not able to perform 47 of the 73 functions it is supposed to, including renewing enrollment for people on public programs, renewing enrollment for people in private plans and making changes to enrollment based on life-changing events.

In a letter to Dayton last week, the Republican Senators highlighted their efforts in 2013 to improve the makeup of the MNsure board, especially their attempt to get more expertise in healthcare information technology on the board. They pledged to re-introduce legislation in early 2015 to change the makeup and governance of the MNsure board.

The letter also urged Dayton to make changes to his hand-picked MNsure Board of Directors, writing: “After almost a year on the job, we don’t believe your current MNsure board is equipped to follow the [Deloitte] report’s recommendations. New leadership is critical to strengthen public confidence and produce results for the taxpayers and users of the exchange.”

“Every time something goes wrong with MNsure, we get cheerleading and denials from board members,” said Senator Sean Nienow (Cambridge). “Gov. Dayton needs to replace his cheerleaders with hands-on managers who will give the people of Minnesota an honest assessment of the problems with MNsure and begin to solve them.”

Republicans also renewed their call for Gov. Dayton to release the MNsure rates for next year before the open enrollment period begins and before the November election. After releasing the rates early in September last year, Dayton now plans to wait until the first day of open enrollment in November to release the premium rates available on the exchange for 2015.

“Last year, it was in Dayton’s interest to release the rates early, so he did,” said Senator Michelle Benson (Ham Lake). “This year, he’s cynically holding them until after the election because the numbers might not look so good. Minnesotans deserve at least the same amount of time they received last year to review their options and make informed decisions about their healthcare coverage.”