Tens of thousands of Americans who cannot get health insurance because of preexisting medical

[NewEngland4Obama]

problems will be blocked from a program designed to help them because funding is running low.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2013/02/15/cb9d56ac-779c-11e2-8f84-3e4b513b1a13_print.html

Funds run low for health insurance in state ‘high-risk pools’
By N.C. Aizenman, Published: February 15 | Updated: Saturday, February 16, 12:50 PM
Tens of thousands of Americans who cannot get health insurance because of preexisting medical problems will be blocked from a program designed to help them because funding is running low.

Obama administration officials said Friday that the state-based “high-risk pools” set up under the 2010 health-care law will be closed to new applicants as soon as Saturday and no later than March 2, depending on the state.

But they stressed that coverage for about 100,000 people who are now enrolled in the high-risk pools will not be affected.

“We’re being very careful stewards of the money that has been appropriated to us and we wanted to balance our desire to maximize the number of people who can gain from this program while making sure people who are in the program have coverage,” said Gary Cohen, director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. “This was the most prudent step for us to take at this point in time.”

The program, which was launched in summer 2010, was always intended as a temporary bridge for the uninsured. But it was supposed to last until 2014. At that point, the health-care law will bar insurers from rejecting or otherwise discriminating against people who are already sick, enabling such people to buy plans through the private market.

From the start, analysts questioned whether the $5 billion that Congress appropriated for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan — as the program is called — was sufficient.

Initial fears that as many as 375,000 sick people would swamp the pools and bankrupt them by 2012 did not pan out. This is largely because, even though the pools must charge premiums comparable to those for healthy people, the plans sold through them are often expensive.

[Skittles]

1. not a surprise

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. None at all. In fact, this was one of the events predicted even as they were trying to sell

this abomination.

[OceanEcosystem]

2. There's one thing I don't quite understand here

By "denying insurance on the basis of preexisting conditions," does it mean that a patient could not get insurance benefits for a preexisting condition on insurance that was procured after the condition?

For instance, some uninsured person breaks their leg, then goes buys insurance, then wants to have the insurance pay for the surgery for the leg that was broken prior to purchasing insurance?


Or does it rather mean something else, that insurance does not want to cover someone who has a preexisting condition - does not want to provide coverage for all medical conditions whatsoever?

[lynne]

8. Not quite -

- your scenario is true, you can't break your leg first then buy insurance to fix it. A pre-existing condition would be an illness, injury, or disease that was diagnosed prior to purchasing a policy. People with conditions that require constant monitoring are the ones most impacted - those with diabetes, cancer, heart conditions, etc.

[Glitterati]

3. Couldn't afford it anyway

I qualify, but at $535.00/month just for me, that's more than one third of my monthly fixed income.

My mortgage payment is $3.00/month less.

[Cal Carpenter]

4. And the projected outcomes of this bill

continue to decline.

The ACA is proving to be little more than a nominal, partisan win. And when the mandates kick in, it may prove to be a boon to the insurance companies who will reap tons of money from people who still won't be able to afford the copays and deductibles. People falling through the cracks in this flawed system.

The outcomes of policy are what matter. Those who do not grasp this are becoming fewer and fewer as the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows.

[DearHeart]

6. You're right! The ACA is a joke. The insurance companies will just price people with pre-existing

conditions right out of the system. If the people who came up with the ACA and Congress had had any brains, they would've made it illegal to "price" people out of the system, on the basis of pre-existing conditions.

Boy, things just get better and better out here, don't they?

[DearHeart]

5. Thank God that I signed up when I did!

I have a $2500 deductible and will have to pay out of pocket for medicine and dr. appts to get written RX, and the monthly payments are out of sight!

Feel so bad for new applicants who won't be accepted! Thanks the BASTARDS in Congress!

[ljm2002]

9. Isn't it remarkable...

...how they're always able to pull money out of their back pockets when there's a war to be funded, but they're obligated to be "careful stewards" of money to help citizens get medical care.

Pffft.

[Skittles]

10. yup

remarkable