From: Alan Zenk To: *COMM_Public Comments HIX Subject: Comments on Minnesota HIX Guiding Principles Date: Monday, September 17, 2012 3:41:14 PM Hello. I'm responding to your request for comments on guiding principles for a proposed health insurance exchange: Setting up this exchange isn't authorized by any legislation, but rather Governor Dayton's executive order. This is a brazen and extremely stupid waste of tax dollars, and I resent your stealing money from us to fund it, as if it's yours to do with whatever you see fit. It's not. Setting up an "exchange" is just one more tactic nanny-state liberals use to jam socialized medicine down the throats of citizens who aren't paying attention. Socialized medicine NEVER works well, just like communism never works well. You need free markets to correctly allocate resources. All your feel-good intentions won't work, and health care will be of lower quality, it'll be rationed, and people will die earlier and suffer much more. Inserting more idiot bureaucrats into the doctor- patient relationship will also waste countless dollars in administrative burdens, promote costly fraud, and generally ruin the whole healthcare marketplace. This exchange is a foolish idea and should be scrapped immediately before you waste one more dollar thinking about it. Respectfully, Alan Zenk From: Leon Moe To: *COMM_Public Comments HIX Subject: Health Insurance Exchange Date: Monday, September 17, 2012 3:57:00 PM Commissioner Mike Rothman: I find it offensive that we have elected representatives that take an oath to defend and support the Constitution of the greatest nation in human history and they have NO idea what is in that Constitution or choose to ignore it. For your information, please refer to http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec8.html Here is listed the enumerated powers granted to the Federal Government by our Constitution. Healthcare is NOT one of those enumerated powers. Does that mean anything to you? -- In God We Trust Leon Moe Life Member Disabled American Veterans "It is the nature and intention of a constitution to prevent governing by party, by establishing a common principle that shall limit and control the power and impulse of party, and that says to all parties, thus far shalt thou go and no further. But in the absence of a constitution, men look entirely to party; and instead of principle governing party, party governs principle." ~ Thomas Paine Natural Remedies Ever wonder why The Three Wise men included Frankincense and Myrrh with the Gold. From: Cathy Johnson To: *COMM_Public Comments HIX Subject: Opposition to Exchange Date: Monday, September 17, 2012 4:08:54 PM I am opposed to any investment in an Insurance Exchange in MN. The cost is too great and this has not been approved by the legislature. Cathy Johnson Manager, Technology & Operations Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc. | T h i n k i n g A h e a d 3600 American Blvd. W, Suite 500 | Bloomington, MN 55431 Phone: 952.356.0726 | Fax: 866.743.6238 | www.gallagherbenefits.com/minneapolis [email protected] This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential material and/or material protected by law. Any retransmission or use of this information may be a violation of that law. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. From: Janet Koop To: *COMM_Public Comments HIX Subject: exchange Date: Monday, September 17, 2012 4:10:33 PM I am totally opposed to the MN Health Care Exchange and all of the implications that go with it. Stop before it goes any further! Janet Koop Rochester, MN From: Lorri Barnett To: *COMM_Public Comments HIX Subject: Public Comments regarding HIX Date: Monday, September 17, 2012 4:16:01 PM "The exchange is considered the "heart" of federal health care reform, according to a Star Tribune interview with an HMO executive in October. Republicans should absolutely say no to Obama's takeover of health care. The so-called "exchange" is a federally controlled bureaucracy under federal law and federal rules. The first set of proposed federal rules included the word "require" 811 times. The exchange will empower health plans. Employers will use it to drop their employees from coverage. The exchange will collect and share private medical and financial data. It will expand taxpayer-funded subsidies and dependency. It will limit insurance choices and increase premiums. A government exchange is not a "marketplace." It's not a simple "online tool." It's a government command-and-control center meant to implement the federal takeover of health care in Minnesota." - Twila Brase, http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/138005533.html I whole-heartedly agree that this "exchange" will not be what its being called and that it will cost the taxpayers and the economy millions if not billions of dollars more than its projected to cost. We do not have a free-market health-care system in this country. To call this current system a free market is not being truthful with Minnesotans. -- Lorri Barnett From: John Kessler To: *COMM_Public Comments HIX Cc: [email protected] Subject: Health Insurance Exchange Date: Monday, September 17, 2012 4:23:20 PM Commissioner Rothman, This letter is in response to your request for public comments regarding the exchange. I am very much against the exchange as it is now being discussed. I believe it will waste huge amounts of money to administer, will limit consumer choice, will end up reducing the number of doctors and especially limit what and how they can perform their job. I am especially concerned about the amount of money that has already been spent, what is being proposed to spend and the total lack of transparency in this process. I am also concerned about the proposed lack of a marketplace outside the exchange and the limitations of being able to use my current agent. Thank you. John Kessler, RHU, REBC - Sent from my iPhone. From: [email protected] To: *COMM_Public Comments HIX Cc: [email protected] Subject: HIX Proposed Guiding Principles Date: Monday, September 17, 2012 4:36:21 PM It has come to my attention that Governor Dayton has approved by executive order a Health Insurance Exchange for Minnesota This Exchange will not help citizens of the state of Minnesota in obtaining affordable health care under the Obamacare act. This plan for universal health care is an attempt to copy socialized medicine that other governments have used the push the price of health care the equivalent of 40% of their incomes in countries in Europe and as close as Canada. This exchange will interfere with the patient-doctor delivery of medical care. It will also allow government to enforce payments to doctors based on government-defined "value". As a Minnesotan all of my life I have had health insurance provided by my employer which has gone through joint negotiations by my employee Union and the management and given me the choice of two or three plans to decide which will be of benefit to my needs. As a retiree I am insured partially by Medicare and also by a Medicare Supplement Insurance which is offered to me by my retirement association. Medicare is a plan to offer minimal health care to people ages 65 and older and disabled residents of the US who were on Social Security. This plan must approve every medical procedure I receive from my doctor, and the unpaid balance is paid through my supplemental insurance. The same is true of any medications I am given, the allowed medications are sent out yearly through my supplemental insurance and any medication that is not on this list is not available to me. Any procedures not listed on the Medicare listings are not available through my supplemental insurance. I do believe that the Health Insurance Exchange will further enforce "delivery mechanisms" that lead to government rationed care. This would be a disaster for retired senior citizens, unemployed individuals and people living on substandard wages. This Health Insurance Exchange will also promote public enrollment in food stamps and give the access to more people through "financial assistance" (taxpayer- subsidized programs). I am aware that this program will gather data or race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation and gender and analyze medical records to eliminate disparities in treatment. All of these reasons or principles of this program will lead to unaffordable health insurance because many more government employees will be needed to perform these unnecessary actions and label them as health care. To have real health care, we the taxpayers of Minnesota need to be able to choose their own doctors and health insurers based on their listings of services available without government interference. The government is already interfering in my health care by limiting services given because of my age and having part of my benefits come through Medicare. The government should not analyze my medical recorders. These are private information and I DO NOT want them available to anyone except me and my doctor - not on some data base that is on the internet. This is violating my rights as a citizen of the USA. It is my hope that I will never have to buy a publicly offered health insurance or be taxed and have to buy public insurance that would force me to obtain public financial assistance. This would mean I am divesting all of my assets making me dependent on a government that no longer gives me the freedoms given to me by the Constitution of the United States.