Guest Column by Peggy Bennett

Peggy Bennett is the District 27A representative and is running for re-election.

We have a real crisis in our state with the extreme rising costs of health insurance. There are hundreds of thousands of hard working, middle class Minnesotans who are seeing huge 50 to 60 percent increases in their health insurance premiums, and this on top of already high increases the past two years.

I recently traveled to St. Paul to attend a health insurance roundtable so I could learn more about the skyrocketing costs many in our state are experiencing, as well as brainstorm potential fixes. The stories that were shared there by people from around the state were heartbreaking.

Stories I am hearing locally are equally distressing. One local couple contacted me to tell me that their already high monthly premiums of $1,048 will now rise to $1,800 per month. Add to this the huge $10,000-plus a year deductibles and it becomes almost surreal. People are now paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for health insurance but don’t really have health care.

Who can afford increases like this? These are our farmers and our small business employees and owners — the backbone of our economy. Many are having to make the decision to drop their health insurance all together. This is not sustainable for these families, nor is it sustainable for our economy.

Simply put, the federal Affordable Care Act and our state-run MNsure program are self-destructing. Minnesota used to be a leader in health care. Instead, we’re now a leader in health care costs.

This situation is a perfect example, both federally with the Affordable Care Act and at the state level with MNsure, as to why we cannot have one-party rule ramming bills through on strictly partisan votes. Issues that affect huge swaths of our society, such as health care, must be accomplished in a bipartisan way. Many legislators were telling the authors and those who voted for these programs that they would not work, and now it has come to pass. 

I appreciate that Gov. Dayton is now willing to admit that MNsure/Obamacare is not working for the majority of Minnesotans. Admitting that something is not working is the catalyst to get things started, and do what needs to be done to fix this issue.

Republicans have been offering fixes and calling for long-term reform for the past two years. It is my hope that, with the current dire conditions, Democrats will also be willing to come to the table and begin working on some real reform. It’s time to drop any partisan rancor and come together to create a comprehensive fix that will provide short-term relief for these struggling people, and initiate a long-term fix that will work for all Minnesotans. 

These long-term fixes will need to take a multipronged approach that will address things like insurance, health care cost transparency, prescription and tort reform, as well as working on the federal level to allow more insurance competition from an interstate perspective.  I am working with both local and state level people to bring solutions for these areas that will work for all of us.

This issue isn’t going away. We need to come together to pass common-sense solutions to allow Minnesotans to keep more of their hard-earned paycheck. Our residents are counting on it. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work! It was very frustrating for me these last two years to watch bill after bill that we presented in the House — bills to start some needed health care fixes — get blocked time after time by those on the other side of the aisle. Now it’s time for all of us — both sides of the aisle — to come together and create a comprehensive fix that will provide some short term relief for these struggling people and initiate a long term fix that will work for all Minnesotans. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work!