Key Provisions:
Reinsurance Funding
Minnesota’s reinsurance program started in 2017. Minnesota’s reinsurance program was created to stabilize high health insurance premiums on the individual insurance market which is for people who are not covered through their employers or eligible for Medicare or Medicaid. In 2022, a five-year extension to Minnesota’s reinsurance program was passed and signed into law.
At the end of 2024, chief executives at Minnesota’s four largest nonprofit health insurers warned premiums could spike if the state didn’t fund our reinsurance program which works in tandem with enhanced federal tax credits to subsidize coverage bought through the public MNsure exchange.
To address this concern, the final Commerce budget agreement includes funding for the last two years of the federal reinsurance waiver. This funding will ensure that the state does its part in subsidizing the estimated 186,000 people in Minnesota who are insured through the individual market.
Senate DFLers will now wait to see if President Trump and Congressional Republicans will extend the extra federal tax credits that so many Minnesotans rely on.
HOA Ombudsperson
The Commerce agreement creates an HOA Ombudsperson at the Department of Commerce. This new ombudsperson will facilitate disputes between unit owners and homeowner associations and assist unit owners, tenants and associations in understanding their rights.
Housing Insurance Task Force
All over the country, the cost of homeowners insurance has increased rapidly. Homeowner premium costs are additionally rising faster in Minnesota than most other states. Factors for this rapid increase include more severe weather events, the rising cost of rebuilding, limited labor and more expensive materials and technology.
The Commerce budget seeks to better understand these factors by including funding for a task force to provide legislative recommendations on the affordability of property insurance for single-family homes, multifamily rental housing and common interest communities.
Free Water Provided at Places of Entertainment
Many Minnesota concert venues, like First Avenue, already offer free water to concertgoers, but the practice is not consistent across all venues.
The final Commerce agreement addresses this inconsistency by including Senator Oumou Verbeten’s consumer protection bill that requires places of entertainment with occupancy of at least 100 people to provide, at ticketed events, free water to attendees and allow attendees to bring in sealed bottled water or an empty water bottle to fill.
This measure comes in response to growing concerns about the safety of concertgoers in high energy-environments, where access to water can be difficult and expensive, especially during long performances in packed, hot venues.
Medigap Changes
A 2023 law created an annual open enrollment period that would allow individuals to make an annual plan selection to enroll in a Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plan without underwriting. The law additionally added continuous open enrollment period in certain situations.
The final Commerce agreement includes new requirements for Medigap underwriting and related premium penalties. These changes will ensure that individuals have access to these Medigap plans, while keeping them an affordable option for all enrollees.
Lead/Cadmium/PFAS Changes
In 2023, a law was passed to tighten restrictions on products containing lead and cadmium that children are likely to encounter in their home due to the metals’ harmful health impacts. The law is set to go into effect July 1 this year.
The 2025 Commerce agreement includes an exemption to this requirement for keys containing lead that are imported, manufactured, sold or distributed before July 1, 2028. The agreement additionally exempts artist materials including paints, pastels, pigments, ceramic glazes, markets an encaustics, as well as ink pens and
mechanical pencils.
Securities Unit Staffing
The final Commerce agreement includes a funding increase for Securities unit staffing and operations at the Department of Commerce to support the regulation of securities activities in Minnesota. The funding is covered by an increase in licensing fees for investment advisors and brokers.
Consumer Restitution Account
The Omnibus Tax Bill included a major consumer protection provision to create a state level-level Consumer Fraud special revenue fund to help scam/fraud victims recover financially. Each year, the Attorney General collects civil penalty payments from consumer fraud enforcement cases. When there are victims associated with a case, the money collected is restitution and goes to compensate victims of fraud. Excess money, in most cases, will go into the state’s general fund under current law. The new law directs 50% of all money recovered by the AG in a consumer enforcement action that would be payable to the state to be put into a consumer protection restitution account (the other 50% would still go to the general fund). The account will be used to pay restitution to consumers defrauded in other cases where the AG was unable to unable to collect money from scammers needed to make restitution to the consumers for their losses.
Money from the consumer protection restitution account may be distributed to any eligible consumer with an identified amount of unpaid consumer enforcement public compensation. The money must be distributed chronologically, starting with eligible consumers with a final order of the oldest date. The AG must publish a report on their website identifying where money has come from, which actions resulted in money being distributed to consumers, the actions that consumers are waiting to receive distributions for, and other information.
• Background: In the first three quarters of 2024, the FTC received more than 22,000 fraud reports from Minnesota consumers, with losses totaling nearly $103 million. Scammers are rarely caught, and when they are brought into court, they rarely have retained the money needed to pay back their victims. That means people who lost money to the scams – sometimes their entire life savings – often have nowhere to go to obtain recompense for their loss. The Restitution Fund for Victims of Scams and Fraud established in this bill aims to address this issue.
Did Not Pass:
Liquor Omnibus
The Senate passed a liquor minibus at the end of April that would’ve allowed Minnesota cities statewide to establish “social districts” – designated areas where people can purchase beer, wine and cocktails from licensed establishments and legally consume them in specified public spaces, such as sidewalks and streets. The liquor omnibus also included several other provisions that allow cities or counties to authorize liquor licenses in specific situations, and also increases the current maximum number of cases of wine that may be shipped to Minnesota residents from two to four.
The minibus was held by the House GOP over a proposal that would’ve allowed 17- year-olds to serve liquor, which was opposed by several union groups.
Sports Betting
A bill that would have legalized sports wagering in Minnesota failed to move over debates on addiction concerns, whether to make gaming exclusive to tribes, and how to incorporate state-licensed racetracks.