Posted on 04/03/2010 9:02:08 AM PDT by reaganaut1
In one of its first steps to carry out the new health care law, the Obama administration announced Friday that it was establishing a temporary insurance pool where uninsured people with medical problems could buy coverage at reduced rates.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the program would “help provide affordable insurance for Americans who have been locked out of the insurance market.”
Federal health officials said the program would be available from late June of this year to Jan. 1, 2014, when private insurers will be required to accept all applicants without varying premiums on account of a person’s medical condition.
Under the new law, Ms. Sebelius can sign contracts with states to operate insurance pools meeting federal standards. The federal government can operate the pool directly or hire a nonprofit organization to run it in any state that does not want to do so.
To qualify for the high-risk pool, a consumer must have a pre-existing condition and must have been uninsured for the six months before filing an application.
Premiums in the new program will be set at “standard rates,” based on the average premiums charged by private insurers for similar coverage in the individual market.
“If I have cancer, my rate cannot vary based on my having cancer,” said Jeanne M. Lambrew, director of the Office of Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Ms. Sebelius may establish a minimum set of benefits. The law specifies a limit on out-of-pocket medical costs, which cannot exceed $5,950 a year for an individual in the pool.
Dr. Lambrew said the new program would “build on what works.”
A recent study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation says that 35 states have high-risk pools with enrollment that totaled 200,000
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This is the the first foot-in-the-door leading to single payer. “Subsidized”, a euphemism for “paid for by the taxpayers”.
More gummit control of your life wrapped in feelgoodism. This could have been done by the private sector if competition were believed in rather than communism.
Pray for America
You can't make anything cheaper by subsidizing it, or refusing to pay for it yourself and getting someone else to. Period.
And not even a shot fired...or even a little whimper.
In two years private health insurance will exist in name only.
How much is this going to cost the taxpayers?
If the rate does not cover the risk then it is not insurance. No more than federal flood insurance is
“insurance”. It IS NOT insurance.
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