Minnesota’s Uninsured Rates Drops Below 5% — Lowest in State History
by Evan McMurry | 12:19 pm, June 12th, 2014
Following the closing of the initial enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act, the uninsured rate in Minnesota has fallen to 4.9%, according to report by the University of Minnesota.
This represents a drop of 40.6% from the previous year and the lowest uninsured rate in the state’s recorded history.
The state’s uninsured rate had hovered near 8% before growing above 9% following the 2008 recession. Health experts called the drop, which gives Minnesota the second-lowest number in the nation, “unprecedented.”
Minnesota created its own exchange website, MNSure, rather than relying on the federal version, which, you might have heard, had a kink or two.
The state also fully participated in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion provision, and today’s report indicated that the vast majority of enrollees obtained coverage through public health programs rather than private insurers. “If it’s mostly people enrolled in public programs, we could have done that without spending $170 million on a website,” one GOP state legislator countered.
Researchers cautioned that the report is a “snapshot,” as the health market is fluid, and does not contain any data as to the demographics of the enrollees.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/minnesotas-uninsured-rates-drops-below-5-lowest-in-state-history/
| 
