A provision in some of the health system reform proposals now being debated in Congress calls for an expanded role for state-sponsored high-risk health insurance pools (HRPs) to expand coverage options for individuals who cannot obtain affordable health insurance coverage because of a preexisting medical condition.
A report released on August 21 to the leadership of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) provides data on HRP enrollment and enrollee demographics; the plans' cost-sharing provisions, coverage restrictions, and premiums, along with comparable information for certain private market health plans; and HRPs' governance, expenditures, and funding (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09730r.pdf).
The GAO said that the 34 HRPs operating in 2008 covered 199 418 enrollees and their dependents and that an estimated nearly 4 million additional individuals were potentially eligible for enrollment, based on their uninsured status and preexisting health conditions. In 2008, the average annual . . . [Full Text of this Article]
