Surprise!
By Mitch Berg
Minnesotans: The Minnesota DFL is so proud of MNSure – their signature accomplishment of the past two years – that you’re going to have to sign up for it before you can see what it costs!
Representatives Tara Mack and Joe Hoppe got an op-ed in the Strib over the weekend.
This year Minnesotans won’t know the price of plans until MNsure’s next enrollment period begins on Nov. 15. They’ll have just four weeks to find a plan and complete enrollment.
State health and insurance officials agreed last year that a preview period was a positive step. Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman said releasing rates early “increases transparency and allows individuals, families and small businesses more time to consider the options that will be available on MNsure.” MNsure Chairman Brian Beutner said: “The sooner that you can get concrete information … out is going to allow people to actually make some decisions — as opposed to generalized information.”
So why aren’t the Dayton administration and MNsure pushing for an early rate release again this year?
November 15?
As in, after the election?
But…why?
It’s possible that those who built MNsure are afraid voters will see how much their insurance costs are going up before the election.
Yes. Yes, I think it is just possible.
The media has been eating up the narrative that “MNSure is getting people insured!”. But it’s costing an astounding amount of money and labor to do it, and most of them have no idea that the biggest costs of Obamacare/MNSure haven’t even set in yet.
And the DFL is going to keep it that way until after as many as possible of them have been duped into voting for Governor Messinger Dayton again.
June 23rd, 2014 at 8:56 am
Here’s an idea. Republicans should just put out a big ad that says “MNSURE insurance prices to DOUBLE, right after the election!” Then when the DFL says that is a lie (which they would do even were it true), don’t they have to tell the public the real number?
June 23rd, 2014 at 9:56 am
No, J., they don’t have to tell the real number. They’ll merely proclaim that they are happy to pay for a better Minnesota and brush by it, knowing the newspapers and broadcasters won’t press the issue.
June 23rd, 2014 at 10:29 am
But, but, DFL wise man Ken Martin says MNSure is an asset! Why wouldn’t the scary smart, reality based community be celebrating and embracing the wondrous news that is surely forthcoming?
June 23rd, 2014 at 10:37 am
The DFL is not counting on people who pay attention to swallow this bilge. They’re relying on THE STUPID and, of course, media to report what they say as if it’s actual sanity.
June 23rd, 2014 at 11:56 am
If the MN-DFL runs on this they are even more retarded than I thought.
June 23rd, 2014 at 11:56 am
To build on Mr. Ewing’s point, we might do well to have commercials saying “the DFL is hiding the true cost of MNsure until after the election. Wonder how bad the rates are going to be if they feel the need to hide them?”
As any carry permit holder will tell you, uncertainty can be a greater deterrent than certainty. No need to make up the numbers, just make people nervous about what disaster the DFL has ready for us.
June 23rd, 2014 at 12:06 pm
If I was advising the state MNGOP as a group I’d issue a press release every day asking why they won’t release the MNSure figures until after the election.
June 23rd, 2014 at 12:41 pm
POD: I think if YOU were heading up the MNGOP, the press would have a field day with the title, Chairman Prince Of Darkness.
June 23rd, 2014 at 12:44 pm
If I was advising the state MNGOP as a group I’d issue a press release every day asking why they won’t release the MNSure figures until after the election.
That’s a good idea. I’d also have the candidate for governor asking that question on the trail every single day, before every single audience. I’d also have a boatload of buttons available at the GOP booth at the State Fair with the same question.
June 23rd, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Republicans aspire to live morally, which means they don’t intentionally lie. When they do lie, they’re punished for failing to live up to their own standards. Republicans couldn’t place those ads – they’d backfire.
Democrats are not similarly constrained.
June 23rd, 2014 at 1:27 pm
TBS: As a sidenote I am on a first name basis with Chairman Downey in my human form 😉
June 23rd, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Bikebubba has the better solution. Hear! Hear! Now, what will the counter-ad from the ABM folks be? Republicans are lying, maybe?
June 23rd, 2014 at 4:03 pm
no JE it would be Republicans are WRONG FOR MINNESOTA. I swear an ad agency filled with retards could do better. Then again an ad agency filled with retarded people would STILL have a higher combined IQ than the people working over at ABM.
June 24th, 2014 at 10:41 am
Read an article in Forbes magazine (doctor’s waiting room, no idea the date) in which the writer wonders why the US Chamber of Commerce isn’t thrilled at Obama-care. Small company employees get subsidized coverage, big companies can dump expensive health insurance to pay modest fines, everybody has coverage . . . winners all around. Bet that guy never met a taxpayer, nor thought about what happens when the last financial domino falls.