Abortion, wigs for cancer patients, IVF: Health insurance coverage changes in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS – This session, the Minnesota Legislature passed new coverage requirements for health insurance plans in an effort to reduce out-of-pocket costs of care.

Abortions, gender-affirming care, prosthetics and wigs for cancer patients are among the new mandates for health plans. The approved changes will take effect on January 1.

Here’s what you need to know:

Wig

Minnesota law previously required insurers to cover wigs for people with alopecia, but former DFL Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, who is battling cancer, introduced legislation to extend it to anyone with hair loss. hair due to a medical condition. This includes patients such as those dealing with cancer.

Wigs can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars up to $5000, leaving some priced out of getting one despite its benefits. Advocates say it helps people find a sense of self when their bodies are undergoing treatment that changes their appearance.

“When it comes to something that people might think is as trivial as wigs — it’s not. It’s very important. It’s very empowering. It gives you a sense of normalcy,” Haley Erickson, a survivor, told WCCO. breast cancer.

Coverage is limited to $1,000 per benefit year and is subject to co-payments and deductibles required for similar items under the policy.

“If we put patients first, we will pass this bill to help patients move forward,” Dziedzic said during a committee hearing in March.

abortion

Abortions and any prior and follow-up services must be covered by a “no-payment, coinsurance, deductible, or other recorded cost-sharing that is greater than the cost-sharing applicable to similar services,” according to the statute.

It also limits any limitations on coverage, such as prior authorization, referral requirements, limitations or delays.

Religious organizations are exempt from offering this coverage if they object, but the law requires them to notify employees during the hiring process and anyone else already working there at least 30 days before enrolling in health plans.

Gender Affirmation Care

Lawmakers also codified insurance coverage for gender-affirmation care for transgender people if a doctor determines the treatment is medically necessary. There are also exemptions for religious organizations, similar to the new provisions on abortion.

The law defines gender-affirming care as “all medical, surgical, counseling or referral services, including telehealth services, that an individual may receive to support and confirm the individual’s gender identity or gender expression and that are lawful under the laws of this state.”

Orthotics and prostheses

Insurers must provide coverage for orthotic and prosthetic equipment, supplies and services “at least equal to the coverage provided under federal law,” the statute says. Prior authorization may be required.

More than 28,000 Minnesotans live with limb loss, according to the group So Everybody Can Move. Out-of-pocket expenses without health plan coverage can cost families $5,000 to $50,000.

What didn’t pass this year: Infertility treatment

A group of families struggling with infertility gathered at the state capitol several times this session to urge lawmakers to mandate insurance coverage for treatments such as in-vitro fertilization.

It didn’t clear the finish line after all. DFL Chair Melissa Hortman told reporters in March that a statewide mandate would be expensive and that they didn’t have the capacity to pass it this session — it wasn’t a budget year when lawmakers set government spending and programs. its for the next two years. .

They will begin that work again next session.

Miraya Gran of Bloomington hopes the Legislature will give the proposal a second look. She told WCCO that her family’s future depends on it. Her insurance doesn’t cover IVF, and she and her husband have already spent tens of thousands of dollars and taken out a second mortgage to have their three-year-old daughter Isla.

The financial, emotional and physical burden took a toll on me and my husband,” she said.

Twenty-one other states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws requiring coverage, according to a national infertility organization.

“I just want to make it better for other people, because infertility is a disease and it deserves treatment, which then deserves insurance coverage,” Gran said.