Republicans argue MNsure hasn’t really reached enrollment goal

MNsure announced on Tuesday that the state’s embattled insurance exchange had sprinted past its 135,000-enrollment goal for coverage obtained there by March 31, but Republicans say the exchange officials are misleading the public in order to present the veneer of success.

The estimates for private insurance purchases have consistently dropped since the initial projections that Democrats used when the insurance exchange bill was before the Legislature in 2013. Early projections expected 160,000 private enrollments for all of 2014, but current numbers forecast just 50,518.

“The truth that your administration, and the MNsure board, should be telling all Minnesotans is that enrollment projections have been woefully short of your administration’s predictions,” Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, wrote in a Wednesday letter to Gov. Mark Dayton.

Enrollment numbers are constantly changing as the deadline for open enrollment looms at the end of this month, and the exchange has seen an expected uptick in sign-ups as the preceding days slip away.

Private enrollments hang at 41,273 as of March 25, while medical assistance enrollments have topped 75,000 – roughly six times higher than previously anticipated.

Initially, MNsure had predicted about 70,000 private enrollments in the exchange by April 1, and later downgraded that estimate to 50,500 for all of 2014.  Though it appears private coverage enrollments will top that newer estimate, Abeler, who is running for U.S. Senate, said MNsure shouldn’t be celebrating artificial victories.

“There are all kinds of propaganda ministries in the world,” Abeler said in an interview. “There shouldn’t be one at MNsure.”

But MNsure officials said that when many of the early projections were made, the exchange didn’t yet exist and details were murky.

“The information upon which a lot of the earlier estimates were based was really based on no experience of what enrollment would be, and so they were projections,” MNsure interim CEO Scott Leitz said after a governing board meeting Wednesday. “As more information became available, I think those got refined.”

Securing enough private enrollments is key to the fiscal health of MNsure, which will fund itself by withholding a small percentage of premiums paid through the exchange. Though MNsure reached its goal of 135,000 enrollments, the vast majority of those enrollees are for public programs, which don’t directly contribute to MNsure’s fiscal health.

Concerns over MNsure’s solvency remain, though the governing board put forward a $39.8 million budget for 2015 earlier this month that they say won’t require additional legislative or federal funding.

Leitz said that those budget estimates are predicated on getting 40,000 enrollees during this year’s enrollment period – a benchmark the exchange has already met.

“We obviously think getting the QHP numbers up is a good thing that provides stability from a funding perspective for the organization and also coverage for people,” Leitz said after the meeting. “But the budget that we submitted to the Legislature assumed that we would have 40,000 enrollees in QHPs through open enrollment, so we’re already ahead.”

Wednesday’s board meeting was quiet and light on details about hiring a new vendor to develop long-term fixes for the MNsure website.