REGIONAL— Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposal to allow all Minnesotans to purchase the state’s public health insurance plan, known as MinnesotaCare, is likely to face strong opposition from Republicans. So says Sen. Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook.

And Bakk speaks from experience. Last year, when DFLers still controlled the state Senate, the Senate budget bill included a provision similar to the governor’s MinnesotaCare proposal. “We got it to the conference committee, but Republicans in the House didn’t want to fix health care,” said Bakk. “They wanted to run on ‘it’s broken.’”

While MinnesotaCare had bipartisan support when the Legislature and Republican Gov. Arne Carlson created the insurance program in the 1990s, GOP support for the program has largely vanished in recent years. “In 2015, Republicans voted to eliminate MinnesotaCare,” noted Bakk.

To date, Republicans haven’t indicated whether they’ll give consideration to the governor’s proposal, which supporters say would provide a quality health insurance option at an affordable price. Supporters, like Sen. Tony Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, say having such an option is particularly important in rural Minnesota, where Minnesotans have a limited choice of affordable private plans. And Lourey said he’s worried more private insurers are likely to abandon rural Minnesota. “I’ve asked all the carriers myself if they will be there in my district in 2018 and I can’t get one to tell me with any confidence that they will be,” he said.

The governor’s push on MinnesotaCare comes as lawmakers seek to grapple with the sharp increase in rates, and fewer options, put forward on the individual market by private insurers in the state. The rate hikes prompted the Legislature and the governor to agree on a $326 million package of rebates for those Minnesotans who don’t qualify for federal subsidies under the ACA. But lawmakers all agreed that the package is a temporary fix and both DFLers and Republicans have indicated they’ll seek additional reforms this year to provide a longer-term solution for the individual insurance market.

And that’s where Bakk sees a potential glimmer of hope. With the GOP now in charge at the Legislature, he said they have to be willing to seek solutions. “They can’t just sit on their hands,” said Bakk. “They have to come up with some kind of reform.”

The governor’s MinnesotaCare proposal does offer some advantages, such as providing rural consumers with expanded health insurance choice, superior coverage over many private plans, and an affordable premium. And since the proposal allows Minnesotans to buy into MinnesotaCare at its unsubsidized premium, it won’t cost taxpayers anything beyond an estimated $12 million one-time set-up charge. Bakk said it would be a good deal for Minnesotans. “It would save them a significant amount of money,” he said.