Minn. stop-loss insurance legislation on hold due to opposition
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A plan to restrict the sale of stop-loss insurance in Minnesota has been stripped from insurance legislation amid opposition from local business groups.
State Sen. James P. Metzen, D-St. Paul, chairman of the Minnesota Senate Commerce Committee where the bill was introduced Wednesday, instructed stakeholders to work out their differences before bringing it back to committee for consideration, according to a bulletin issued Thursday to members of the Self-Insurance Institute of America. SIIA said it expects those meetings to begin as early as next week.
The stop-loss measure had been part of H.B. 647, a larger insurance regulatory proposal that also addressed insurance fraud. It would have barred medical stop-loss insurers from selling policies to self-funded employers of all sizes with specific deductibles below $60,000.
In addition, the Minnesota proposal would have barred stop-loss insurers from issuing medical stop-loss policies to employers with 50 or fewer lives with an aggregate attachment point lower than the greater of $4,000 times the number of group members, 120% of expected claims or $20,000. It would have required stop-loss policies sold to groups with more than 51 lives to have annual aggregate attachment points of at least 110% of expected claims.
SIIA has long maintained that medical stop-loss insurance is not health insurance and that any state attempts to regulate it would be pre-empted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Minnesota was one of three states to introduce legislation that would restrict medical stop-loss insurance sales so far this year. Similar proposals are pending in Rhode Island and California.
