State Health Plan Enrollment – Minnesota

Minnesotans jam lines to join state health care plan, By Warren Wolfe, August 25, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Applications for MinnesotaCare, the state’s insurance plan for the poor and working poor, have shot up 25 percent so far this year. The increase appears to reflect layoffs in a weak economy and the rising cost of health insurance, which has caused employers to drop coverage or shift more costs to employees. Last month alone, MinnesotaCare applications rose 43 percent from July 2008, reaching 5,473. The crush of applicants has doubled the time required to process applications, to eight weeks, and phone lines are often jammed because the agency that manages the program now answers the phone only between 12:30 and 4 p.m. so workers can spend more time on the paperwork backlog, officials acknowledged Monday…”