A health care reform measure authored by U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) required insurers to rebate $330 million dollars to consumers in Minnesota and across the country this year, and has cut billions of dollars in Americans' insurance premium costs since it went into effect in 2011, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released today.

The report credited Sen. Franken's "Medical Loss Ratio" provision with benefitting 6.8 million Americans with premium rebates this year. Sen. Franken's measure, also known as the "80/20 Rule," requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on actual health care—not administrative costs, marketing, or CEO salaries. If insurers don't meet the requirement, they must rebate the difference.

Since it first went into effect, Sen. Franken's measure has forced insurance companies to become more efficient, lowering up-front premium costs by billions of dollars, while at the same time sending a total of $1.9 billion in premium rebates back to consumers.

"Minnesotans' health care premium dollars shouldn't be spent on marketing or huge bonuses for executives—they should go toward paying for actual care," said Sen. Franken. "I'm very pleased that so many people in Minnesota and across the country are benefiting from the cost-saving measure I authored-and most importantly, that insurance companies are spending more on actual health care and saving Minnesotans money on the front end. Over the last three years, consumers across the country have saved billions because of my provision."

The HHS report includes a state-by-state breakdown of premium rebates sent to consumers. In Minnesota, 1915 consumers are receiving a total of $523,000 in rebates, averaging $522 per family.

You can read about the HHS report on Sen. Franken's measure here. Read the entire report here.