Daily Digest: Insurance proposals come in high

Good morning, and welcome to the unofficial last Friday of summer. And to update a report from earlier this week. maybe there's not intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy after all.  Now that I've depressed you, let's go to the Digest.

1. Health insurers who sell on the individual market are seeking some hefty premium increases for the 270,000 or so people in the state who buy their insurance that way. The numbers came out on a federal website Thursday and final rates for next year will be set later this month. Blue Plus is seeking hikes ranging from 36 percent to 67 percent. HealthPartners proposes average increases of 43 percent and 51 percent. UCare's average is 66 percent. Medica is seeking 59 percent, and PreferredOne wants an average of 63 percent more for an individual plan with children's dental coverage. (MPR News)

2. Political reaction to the proposed rate increases came in quickly after they were posted. As you might expect, Republicans who have opposed the Affordable Care Act and MNsure from the start were quick to criticize Democrats. As for the Democrats, they were calling for changes to reduce prices and improve the system. (Pioneer Press)

3. Enbridge Energy is withdrawing its request for a permit for the Sandpiper pipeline, a couple weeks after buying a stake in another pipeline which does not go through Minnesota. The $2.6 billion pipeline would have carried oil from North Dakota's Bakken oil fields to Superior, Wisconsin. Environmentalists and Indian tribes opposed the project, which had been going through the regulatory process for years. (Star Tribune)

4. Hillary Clinton's campaign says the latest release of emails by a group that's been opposing her actually highlights a big success during her years as secretary of state. Judicial Watch sent out a press release saying that the emails showed the Clinton Foundation asked for special favors from the State Department. But the Clinton camp says the request actually involved a secret trip Bill Clinton made to North Korea to successfully win the release of two U.S. journalists who had been taken prisoner. (Washington Post)

5. Reviews continue to come in for Donald Trump's immigration speech the other night. Some of the harshest critics of his hard line rhetoric? Hispanic Republicans. From this piece: “A couple of weeks ago it sounded as if there was going to be a pivot,” said Mr. Aguilar, who predicted that other Republican Latinos would soon renounce their support for Mr. Trump. “If you heard the speech, it was either self-deport or be deported.” He added: “I think we were generally misled.” (New York Times)

Have a great Friday and a great Labor Day weekend.

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