Minnesota Working to Address Health Care Crisis, But Missed Opportunity to Bring Affordable Options Back to Minnesotans

For Immediate Release
January 25, 2017

MEDIA CONTACT:

Hamilton Strategies, 610.584.1096, ext. 104, or Media@HamiltonStrategies.com
 

Minnesota Working to Address Health Care Crisis,
But Missed Opportunity to Bring Affordable
Options Back to Minnesotans

ST. PAUL, Minn.—The Minnesota House Republicans has been working to address the state’s health insurance crisis, but deleted a component from a key bill last night that would have returned health care options to Minnesotans.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org), a national health freedom and patient advocacy organization based in St. Paul, released the following statement today.

“Last week, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom was pleased to see the ‘freedom of choice in health insurance’ amendment offered by Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) added to the Republican health care reform bill, HF 1,” said Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF. “It authorized health plan companies in the state of Minnesota to ‘offer health plans that do not include federally-required health benefit mandates.’

“The companies would also be allowed to offer policies that also did not include state-mandated benefits, as long as the companies also made available policies that did include those benefits,” she continued. “These policies would have allowed health plans to offer more customized policies to Minnesotans and opened up the market to the affordable catastrophic coverage policies prohibited by the Affordable Care Act for anyone over the age of 29.

“Unfortunately, the option of a more affordable customized policy was deleted from the bill last night in conference committee,” Brase concluded. “Minnesota has 57 mandated benefits, each one adding to the cost of health insurance premiums for all Minnesotans. This was a missed opportunity to bring affordable health insurance options back to Minnesota.”

CCHF has launched The Wedge of Health Freedom (www.JointheWedge.com) to restore simplicity, affordability, and confidentiality to health care. Wedge practices, where patients can find affordable, patient-centered care, are located in 43 states and can be found online.

CCHF is a national patient-centered health freedom organization existing to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights. For more information about CCHF, visit its web site at www.cchfreedom.org, its Facebook page or its Twitter feed @CCHFreedom. For more about The Wedge of Health Freedom,

visit www.JointheWedge.com, The Wedge Facebook page or follow The Wedgeon Twitter @wedgeoffreedom.

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For more information or to interview Twila Brase, president and co-founder of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, Beth Harrison at 610-584-1096, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com.