By Michelle Griffith | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans will face significantly higher health insurance costs next year, the Minnesota Department of Commerce announced Thursday.
The average increase for individual and small group health insurance plans is 17% for 2027, which will raise costs for nearly 400,000 Minnesotans covered by these plans, Alyssa Chen reported.
The rising cost of health insurance has become a key issue for political candidates seeking office, and Democrats and Republicans were quick to blame each other for the skyrocketing costs.
Federal policy has created significant shifts in the individual market place. Congressional Republicans blocked Democratic efforts to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, meaning fewer people will receive the federal subsidies that offset the cost of health care premiums.
The Department of Commerce attributed the cost spikes to “broad changes across our health care system,” including the high prices of medical visits and drugs, people using more healthcare, and “the growing role of profit-driven entities in the delivery and financing of care.”
Republican nominee for governor Lisa Demuth blamed Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar for the rising cost of health insurance. Not sure pinning the rise in healthcare costs on a single senator is gonna stick. Klobuchar said the healthcare cuts in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which is estimated to kick nearly 10 million Americans off Medicaid by 2034 — was the cause of the rate hike. Also debatable, as the cuts haven’t kicked in yet.
Onto today’s Reformer.
Hennepin County detectives Jason Wong and Nick Peterson punched, tased and arrested Allanzo Johnson after stopping him for a broken taillight in north Minneapolis on March 27, 2025. Misdemeanor charges against Johnson were dismissed after prosecutors obtained the officers’ body camera footage. (Screenshot from bystander video)
By Max Nesterak
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has stopped classifying deputies as “undercover” to shield their body camera footage from the public, following a campaign by public defenders for more than a year and rebukes from at least three judges.
As the Reformer first reported earlier this year, the Sheriff’s Office has since around 2022 restricted the release of body camera footage of members of its Violent Offender Task Force by calling them undercover, even when the deputies were carrying out regular policing duties like traffic stops for broken taillights.
Public defenders argued the practice robbed their clients of public trials and was a blatant attempt to circumvent public transparency, one of the main reasons law enforcement agencies around the country invested millions of dollars equipping officers with body cameras.
By Madison McVan
The family of Renee Good filed a pair of lawsuits against the federal government and top Trump administration officials Thursday morning, seeking compensation and a trial to determine the liability of several federal officials in Good’s killing.
Good was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7 as she and her wife, Becca Good, protested the agents’ presence in their south Minneapolis neighborhood.
Good’s family is filing two lawsuits: one under the Federal Tort Claims act — which provides for the compensation of people abused by federal employees — and another relying on a novel legal theory based on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which outlaws conspiracies to deprive people of their constitutional rights. (Correction from Thursday’s newsletter, which neglected to include the KKK Act litigation.)
By Dylan Young
The University of Minnesota announced $225 million in budget cuts over two years beginning in July 2027, and a Humphrey School of Public Affairs student and former student body president argues that the University of Minnesota needs to establish a democratic process in deciding how to address the budget issues.
“The financial pressures facing the university are real, but who bears the greatest costs remains a choice. Will (President Rebecca) Cunningham and the Board of Regents continue placing that burden on students, staff and faculty, or pursue solutions advancing the land-grant mission by empowering Minnesota’s working families?” Young writes.
IN OTHER NEWS
Sharp rise in deportation orders for Somalis in Minnesota | Star Tribune
OH BY THE WAY
Check out Minnesota’s fall color map for peak autumn foliage. It also tells you what state parks are at their peak. It looks like much of northern Minnesota will be at its most photogenic these next few days.
Have a great weekend!
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