Some Republican States Opting Out Of High Risk Health Insurance Pools
May 01, 2010 - Kaiser Health News
News outlets covered state responses to the federal government's deadline on
high risk insurance pools.
Los
Angeles Times: "As many as 20 states probably will not operate new insurance
programs for Americans who have been denied health coverage, forcing the federal
government to step in to implement one of the key elements of the healthcare
overhaul legislation, according to administration officials. ... a succession of
mostly Republican state officials has been rejecting the idea of creating state
pools, voicing concerns that state governments would end up having to pay some
of the costs of operating them over the next 3 1/2 years."
"By Friday
afternoon, a deadline set by Sebelius, 15 states had informed the Department of
Health and Human Services that they would not set up new pools, including South
Carolina, Minnesota and Wyoming. Twenty-eight states, including California, New
York and Illinois, indicated they would set up their own pools" (Levey,
5/1).
CQ
HealthBeat: "As of 12:30 p.m. Friday, these are the states that will operate
a program: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of
Columbia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri,
Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota,
Vermont and Washington. States opting out are Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana,
Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee and Wyoming"
(Norman, 4/30).
MedPage
Today: "The law provides $5 billion to fund the program from July 1, 2010
through Jan. 1, 2014. Money will be allocated based on each state's population
as well as its costs. Many states already have such high-risk pools, although in
some states, the pools might be more expensive for patients than the
HHS-directed pools would be" (Walker, 4/29).
The
Wall Street Journal: "The decisions on high-risk pools illustrate the
pitfalls for the White House in handing states significant responsibility for
carrying out the overhaul. In an effort to provide flexibility, lawmakers gave
states oversight for some of the bill's biggest provisions, including running
insurance exchanges starting in 2014 that will eventually cover about 30 million
people. ... More broadly, the challenge for the White House is that 50
states could have 50 approaches, making the success of the health overhaul vary
depending on where people live" (Adamy, 5/1).
Detroit
Free Press: "Michigan will create a high-risk pool later this year to
provide insurance for uninsured people with chronic health problems, most likely
by subcontracting the job to one of the state's health insurers, state officials
said Friday."
"Ken Ross, Michigan's commissioner of the Office of
Financial and Insurance Regulation, said the state wants to create such a pool,
which would provide affordable coverage to people who have been denied insurance
for at least six months because they have a chronic health problem" (Anstett,
4/30).
Des
Moines Register: "Iowa will use $35 million from the federal government to
set up a temporary health-insurance pool ... [Democratic] Gov. Chet Culver
decided to accept the money after receiving advice from the Iowa Insurance
Commission. ... The Insurance Commission now must set details of how it will run
the new pool, which will start July 1. Iowa is one of 35 states that already
have similar programs. The one here is called the Health Insurance Plan of Iowa,
better known as 'HIP Iowa.' It has about 3,000 members, most of whom have
serious medical conditions, such as kidney disease, cancer or hemophilia (Leys,
4/30).
Associated
Press/CNBC reports that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said
"There's going to be somebody holding the bag for either one or two years worth
of this program. c I don't think, as a fiduciary to South Carolina taxpayers,
you want to put South Carolina in the role of the guy or the gal that picks up
the bag" (4/30).
Associated
Press/WKBT: "Gov. Tim Pawlenty says Minnesota is opting out of a new
national high-risk pool for hard-to-insure Minnesotans. Pawlenty says Minnesota
already has such a pool. And he's concerned that the initial $5 billion in
federal funding for the program will go quickly, meaning big premium increases"
(4/30).
The
Seattle Times: "Washington state will administer an interim federal
insurance plan for people with serious health problems, despite already having a
similar statewide high-risk pool plan in place." Washington and other states
"have struggled with the complexities of having to administer two plans that
appear to target the same people, but have different qualifications, premium
structures and possibly benefits" (Ostrom, 4/29).
Southern
California Public Radio: "The federal government offered states a choice:
let Uncle Sam run a temporary insurance program for people with serious medical
problems who canft get insurance — or let us pay you to do it. Governor
Schwarzenegger chose the money: $761 million a year until the program dissolves
four years from now. c The state will run the federal program alongside a
high-risk insurance program the state already operates for about 7,000
Californians, only the feds program will cover a lot more people — as many as
25,000 Californians" (Small, 4/29).
Meanwhile, late Friday, HHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs
Jenny Backus released this
statement:
"We are gratified by the response we have seen from the
states regarding this important provision of the Affordable Care Act and look
forward to working together to provide people who have been denied coverage for
so long, access to some much needed relief through the creation of temporary
high-risk pools. Whether states create these pools or the federal government
creates them for states, the pools will be paid for by 100 percent federal
dollars and most importantly --- uninsured people around the country will soon
have access to another affordable coverage option."
gWe value the input of our state partners and are heartened by the strong
show of support we have seen already for getting the critical benefits of the
Affordable Care Act to the American people as quickly as possible. This is a
very state-friendly law that is designed to give states the resources and
flexibility they need to implement its provisions. We will work closely with the
states in the coming weeks and months to help their residents - who have been
denied coverage for too long - to finally have affordable options."
(4/30).
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