(C) Minnesota Reformer
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MinnesotaCare public option: A lifeline for small business owners and care workers • Minnesota Reformer [1]
['Shawntel Gruba', 'More From Author', 'March']
Date: 2024-03-21
MinnesotaCare is our state’s highly successful public health insurance program for working class Minnesotans. For years, the Legislature has discussed various proposals for a MinnesotaCare public option that would make it accessible to more of us. This year, we’re closer than ever to making affordable, quality health care available to more people who need it.
If lawmakers finish the work they started last session and pass a MinnesotaCare public option, it could be available for small business owners like myself by January 1, 2027.
As the owner of a child care center in Mountain Iron, nothing is more important than my health, and the health of my employees who care for the children at our center. Nearly every person who works at my child care center, including myself, has health care coverage through MinnesotaCare.
For now, there’s a ceiling on how much money you can make and still be eligible for MinnesotaCare. That means thousands of child care workers across the state — as well as other workers caring for our seniors and people living with disabilities — have no choice but to go without health care, or intentionally lower our wages or working hours to maintain our eligibility. Do we really want Minnesotans to work less just so they can afford decent health care?
Child care is the work that makes all other work possible, and those of us in the care field deserve health insurance that is high-quality, accessible and affordable. This is the promise of MinnesotaCare, a bipartisan public health insurance program founded in 1992 that is currently available to Minnesotans earning at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, or about $55,000 per year for a family of four.
As care workers and small business owners, we cannot afford to lose access to MinnesotaCare coverage if the only other health insurance options for us are high-deductible, low-quality plans on the individual market. Health insurance does not work if it is too expensive to use.
But we also shouldn’t be juggling our workload to reduce our income so we do not lose access to MinnesotaCare. This is absurd and not sustainable as we need to make more money to make ends meet in this economy, and families need more of our care services, not less.
The MinnesotaCare public option would benefit 150,000 Minnesotans just like me because we’d be able to earn more money and keep our MinnesotaCare coverage.
It is critical that the public options passes this session. Minnesotans need the option to buy-in to trusted, affordable health insurance. This is especially true for Minnesotans teetering on the edge of MinnesotaCare eligibility, as well as the tens of thousands of Minnesotans stuck in high-deductible plans on the individual market.
If Minnesota wants more small businesses, more access to child care, and a healthier state, lawmakers must look to MinnesotaCare and fulfill their commitment to passing a public option that works for all of us.
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[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/03/21/minnesotacare-public-option-a-lifeline-for-small-business-owners-and-care-workers/
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