Rep. Angie Craig Hosts Roundtable with State Rep. Bierman, Health Care Advocates, Minnesotans to Discuss Legislation to Hold Big Insurance Companies Accountable for High Denial Rates

INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, MN – Today, U.S. Representative Angie Craig hosted a roundtable in Inver Grove Heights with State Representative Robert Bierman, Trent Andersen from Protect Our Care and Bob Miller and Dan Spano, Minnesotans who have been impacted by our broken health care system. During the roundtable, the panelists discussed her new legislation to hold health insurance companies accountable for above average-denial rates and refund patients for health care costs that should have been covered by insurance. 

Rep. Craig’s Patient Refunds for Bad Denials Act would create financial penalties for health insurers that deny more than 25% of claims in a given year according to an annual audit by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The penalty would total $10 million plus an additional $2 million for each percentage point above the 25% denial threshold. These penalties would be paid back to affected enrollees.

“For too long, mega health insurance companies have raked in record profits while exploiting sick Americans. Well, my team and I have listened. And we say, enough is enough,” said Rep. Craig. “We live in the richest country in the world. Americans shouldn’t be struggling to pay for necessary health care, especially when they’re paying an arm and a leg already for health insurance. So that’s why we’re here today – to talk about the path forward toward a health care system that actually works for Minnesotans and how we’re going to work together to hold these players accountable.” 

In plan year 2024, the in-network denial rate for qualified health plans (QHPs) sold on HealthCare.gov ranged from three percent to 36 percent, with significant variation by insurer and by state. According to a January 2026 Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll, two-thirds of insured adults believe delays and denials of health care services by health insurance companies are a “major problem" and one-third of insured adults say they have had a health insurance company deny coverage for a service or medication prescribed by their doctor in the past two years. Nearly 40 percent of participants who reported having trouble paying medical bills said that denied claims contributed to their medical debt.

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