Minnesota insurance facts
- Roughly 3.6 million people in Minnesota get health insurance on the job, where family premiums average $13,184, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.
- Since 2000, average family premiums have increased by 90 percent.
- Twenty-two percent of middle-income Minnesota families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.
- Ten percent of Minnesotans report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.
- Nine percent of Minnesotans are uninsured. More than two-thirds of the uninsured are in families with at least one full-time worker.
- Minnesota businesses and families pay a hidden health tax of approximately $400 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.
- Only 38 percent of small businesses offered health coverage benefits in 2006.
- Choice of insurance provider is limited in Minnesota. Blue Cross Blue Shield accounts for 50 percent of the health insurance market share.
Source: The Health Care Status Quo: Why Minnesota Needs Health Care Reform
August 19, 2009