The Winston-Salem Journal cheers for North Carolina’s federally-funded high-risk insurance pool, noting “it’s one of the first elements of the new health-insurance-reform program and it has the potential to be of enormous help to those people who really need it.”
Problem is the money’s going to run out well before 2014, when insurers will be forced to accept all applicants regardless of preexisting conditions:
A new study by the Congressional Budget Office says the money will “not be sufficient to cover the costs of all applicants.” If more than 200,000 people participate, the budget office said, “the available funds will probably be exhausted prior to 2013.” Consumers or states could then be left in the lurch, seeking other sources of coverage. Some governors cited this concern in deciding not to apply for federal money.
Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said 375,000 people could gain coverage in high-risk pools this year. But he predicted, “By 2011 and 2012, the initial $5 billion in federal funding would be exhausted.”
As a result, “state officials said they would freeze enrollment if necessary to keep within their budgets,” and it’s “not clear who would be legally responsible for claims that remain unpaid after a state’s allotment runs out.”
Nice.
