Senate approves bill letting watershed districts join county health-insurance pools

The Minnesota Senate passed Senate File 3887 on March 18, 2026, by a vote of 66–1 to allow watershed districts, watershed management organizations and towns to participate in certain county health-insurance self-insurance pools.

Senator Thomas Pratt, sponsor, told the Senate his conversations with a watershed district revealed the entities were unable under current statute (cited as 471.617) to join county self-insurance pools. "Our watershed is only about five employees, and their health insurance is extremely expensive," Pratt said. Allowing those public employees to join a county pool, he said, "will not only provide good coverage for those public employees at a reasonable cost, but it will also end up saving the taxpayers money."

Senator Jordan Klein, speaking as a coauthor, urged support and called the bill "good legislation that will help our local districts." After brief floor discussion and no recorded floor amendments, the secretary read the bill for third reading and the Senate took a roll call for final passage.

Remote votes were announced by presiding senators during the roll call. The clerk announced, "There being 66 ayes and 1 nay," and the bill was passed and its title agreed to.

The floor debate focused on a narrow statutory change to permit additional local entities to join self-insurance arrangements; proponents emphasized savings for small public employers and expanded access to group coverage. The Senate agreed to the bill’s title and passed it on third reading.

(Next steps: the bill passed the Senate and will proceed through enrollment or as otherwise required by the legislative process.)