Another year of rising healthcare premiums has policy experts calling for change

Executive Director of the nonprofit Northstar Policy Action, Jake Schwitzer, says health care was gutted in President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," and he says overall, the country's system of treating health care like any other marketplace is broken.

"Where, if we balance supply and demand, we'll come to an even place where people will pay what they're able to pay for the services that they need," Schwitzer says. "That works for things like buying clothing. It doesn't work for healthcare."

Schwitzer says short of reversing the federal cuts, he's calling on the state to more rigorously review the cost increases set forth by insurance companies.

"With some of these expenditures, your life is on the line. It's not a visit or an expenditure you can choose to not make if the price isn't right," says Schwitzer.

He would also like to see the state fight consolidation in health care, something he says drives up costs and degrades the patient experience.

Earlier this week, Essentia Health and HealthPartners announced that they are taking steps to merge, and that's on the heels of other prominent health system mergers in Minnesota including Sanford Health with North Memorial Health, and Allina Health with Sutter Health.

Union leaders say they are worried about job cuts, and increasing costs, with the new Essentia-HealthPartners merger, and are asking Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to use his power within the law to provide oversight into this proposed merger, "and ensure the interests of Minnesota's workers and patients are protected."

But, Essentia and HealthPartners claim their combined nonprofit health systems will expand access to high-quality care and coverage, strengthen specialty services, leverage technology to better serve patients and support clinicians, and help make health care more affordable.

“This combination is about doing more for the people and communities who count on us,” said HealthPartners President and CEO Andrea Walsh.

For those getting their 2027 health insurance through MnSure or smaller group plans, Schwitzer says the average increase in premium rates is roughly 17.4%.

Also this week, some of the largest health insurance companies in Minnesota began notifying Medicare Advantage plan participants that they are changing or dropping plans for 320,000 seniors ahead of 2027.

Those include Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Medica, and HealthPartners, who are heavily cutting or revamping private Medicare choices. Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the largest Medicare Advantage provider to Minnesotans.

The move will leave hundreds of thousands of local seniors scrambling to find new coverage that will likely cost them more money out-of-pocket.

State regulators and federal officials are watching closely to see how this will impact the upcoming enrollment season and whether this means more changes are coming.

Open enrollment begins October 15.

Rural areas hit hard by cuts

A new poll from the Associated Press shows that nearly half of rural voters said their communities don’t have enough doctors or other healthcare providers, and even more said there aren’t enough mental health workers specifically.

The share of rural voters who said their community does not have enough hospitals increased to 35% from 21% in a similar question asked in a KFF-Washington Post survey in 2017.

And as with the general population, healthcare, gas and grocery costs are top pain points. At least 6 in 10 rural voters said they were worried about healthcare costs.

The level of worry varied based on coverage, with rural voters enrolled in employer plans or Medicare less likely to be worried. The survey found that 80% of working-age rural voters on Medicaid were very or somewhat worried about healthcare costs.

Last year, Republicans passed a tax and spending bill that cut over $900 billion in projected Medicaid spending over a decade and mandated new eligibility requirements.