By David Montgomery

Pioneer Press

Sheri Sexton is fed up with “the arguing between the Democrats and the Republicans” over passing health insurance relief for people like her.

“Nobody can seem to agree on anything,” said Sexton, a dairy farmer from Millville, in southeastern Minnesota, who’s facing a $2,200 monthly premium and a $13,000 deductible. “We all agree that yes, you need to do something on health care, and yet nobody wants to get together and give up their hatchet.”

An estimated 120,000 Minnesotans are in a similar position to Sexton: facing premium increases of 50 percent or more but earning too much money to qualify for federal subsidies that can offset those hikes.

Divisions over the best way to deliver relief continue to delay the final passage of that relief this week, the third of the 2017 session. Democrats and Republicans disagree about who should administer the 25 percent insurance discounts and whether that relief should be bundled with long-term reform.

They’re facing a ticking clock. The open-enrollment period for the individual insurance market ends Jan. 31, so a relief package needs to become law before then for Minnesotans to take any discounts into account when choosing insurance.

The Senate passed its version of a relief package last week. The House is scheduled to vote on its version Thursday afternoon. That would mean a special conference committee would have to address the differences next week before a bill could be sent to Gov. Mark Dayton’s desk for a signature or veto.

Dayton and legislative Democrats held a news conference Tuesday morning to call for Republicans to swiftly adopt the governor’s plan — a solution that Sexton embraced. Republicans say their alternatives are better, and blamed Democrats in the House for slowing relief by refusing two weeks ago to bypass the public hearing process for the GOP relief proposal.