S.F. No. 49 - Summary

• Establishes an easy enrollment health insurance outreach program allowing tax filers to voluntarily share return information with MNsure to receive personalized information about health insurance eligibility and enrollment assistance.

• Creates a Health Care Affordability Board and Advisory Council to monitor health care costs, set annual spending growth targets, require performance improvement plans for entities exceeding targets, and establish an Office of Patient Protection operational by January 1, 2025.

• Implements a state-funded cost-sharing reduction program for silver-level health plans on MNsure, increasing actuarial value to 87 percent for eligible individuals with household incomes between 200-250 percent of federal poverty level beginning plan year 2024.

• Eliminates cost-sharing and deductibles for medical assistance recipients effective July 1, 2025, and increases application assistance bonuses for MinnesotaCare and medical assistance enrollment from $70 to $100.

• Authorizes a MinnesotaCare public option effective January 1, 2027 (pending federal approval) allowing individuals above current income limits to enroll, with a directive to study universal health care system benefits and costs, and appropriates approximately $102 million through fiscal year 2025 to implement these provisions.