A task force appointed by Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman, which includes MMA member Roger Kathol, M.D., has begun work on Minnesota’s exchange, an online marketplace where individuals, families, and small businesses can shop for appropriate insurance coverage.

However, Republican legislators declined to participate, concerned that their participation on the task force would allow Gov. Mark Dayton to claim bipartisan support. The Republican Party has had its own task force at work since fall, with 20 to 30 legislators and people from business involved.

Since the start of the session, two other exchange ideas have emerged. Minnesota Sen. Tony Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, and Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, said Monday they will offer bills to establish a Minnesota-based "health care exchange."  A few hours later, Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, a chief critic of the concept, said he and others soon will offer bills to limit what an exchange might do. Hann held a committee hearing Tuesday morning where Commissioner Rothman discussed insurance exchanges and answered questions from a skeptical committee.

The Dayton administration could meet most of the federal criteria for setting up an insurance exchange without authority from the legislature, said Fred Morrison, University of Minnesota law professor and an expert on Minnesota constitutional law.  Sen. Hann and other Republican legislators disagree with that opinion.  They believe it is the legislature’s role to approve a major change like the exchange.

Dayton’s task force released its preliminary recommendations for a state health insurance exchange Monday.

The MMA believes that the Legislature needs to pass something this year in order to provide Minnesota residents with a Minnesota-based exchange that meets our state’s needs.  We believe the exchange should be a public-private partnership that is governed by a broad board that includes representation of physicians.
 
Listen to the full MPR story.

Read the full StarTribune article.