PCIP: Enrollment In High-Risk Pools Inches Up To 12,000

The government's health insurance program for Americans excluded from the private market because of preexisting conditions continued to increase its enrollment last quarter, according to the latest report from the Obama administration.

Enrollment figures for the new high-risk pool program -- formally known as the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, created by the 2010 health care law -- inched upward to 12,437, the administration reported. Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services estimated last summer that PCIP enrollment could reach 315,000 by 2014.

There are as many as 25 million Americans uninsured because of preexisting conditions, according to one recent estimate.

The $5 billion PCIP program has had a slow start. In November, when HHS announced that 8,011 people had enrolled, officials said it would be difficult to project how many people would eventually be reached, and that it's nearly impossible to guess at how many people might even be eligible.

On Thursday, officials compared the PCIP to the Children's Health Insurance Program, which launched in 1997 and now provides health insurance to more than 9.2 million children.

"This program has helped thousands of people that desperately need coverage and we are excited to see Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan enrollment is ramping up, in much of the way enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program did in the 1990s," Steve Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said in a statement. "We are working every day to get the word out about this program, to find people who have been abandoned by the health insurance industry to get them the coverage they have been denied for so long."

Administration officials have previously downplayed the importance of the PCIP. It's frequently been described as a mere "bridge" to 2014, when health discrimination will be illegal and people who are uninsurable on the individual market because of preexisting conditions like cancer, heart disease or diabetes are supposed to be able to buy an affordable policy from an "exchange" in their state.

It happens to be a Republican bridge: Expanded high-risk pools are the centerpiece of the GOP's alternate health care plan. Before health care reform, 32 states ran their own high-risk pools, covering roughly 200,000 people. (The new PCIP operates alongside those pools, but with lower premiums and broader coverage.) Republicans would expand state high-risk pools and fund them with $25 billion over 10 years.

It's not exactly clear how the Republican alternative would differ from the PCIP in the short-term, but it is clear enough that the PCIP will barely make a dent in the ranks of the uninsured with preexisting conditions. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last summer that even with unlimited funding, the new program might reach just 700,000 between now and 2014.

Comments

[shangrolah]

05:06 PM on 02/21/2011

http://www.ohiopirg.org/news-releases/health-care--prescription-drugs/health-care/health-care-repeal-would-have-costly-consequences-for-ohio-consumers-and-small-businesses

"Consumers and small businesses in Ohio will face significan­­­­­­tly higher insurance premiums and could see coverage denials and price discrimina­­­­­­tion if the federal health care law is repealed, a research group says.

Ohio Public Interest Research Groups, a nonpartisa­­­­­­n public interest advocacy organizati­­­­­­on, details the potential impact in a report, "The Cost of Repeal," released Jan. 10.

According to the report, repeal would strip tax credits from 149,100 Ohio small businesses in the short-term­­­­­­...

Several health insurers have already made changes in advance of health care reform. The parent companies of both UnitedHeal­­­­­­thcar­e and Anthem said they would end the criticized practice of seeking ways to drop sick patients from health plans, doing so much earlier than the new health care reform law requires.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/demons-and-demonization/

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/reuters-and-milwaukee-journal-sentinel-receive-2010-barlett--steele-awards-104329693.html

The report says:

• 25 percent of Ohio residents who have pre-existi­­­­­­ng conditions will continue to face coverage denials...

• employer health costs will rise, leading to 7,400 fewer jobs created per year in Ohio by the end of the decade; and

• $17.1 billion in federal Medicaid dollars would be pulled out of the state’s economy”

[Duppy]

08:39 AM on 02/14/2011

There are some words you CANNOT use together with "Republican" in ANY sentence. They are:

contribution
ideas
agenda
educated/smart
tolerant
pro middle class

I am sure readers here can think of a few more words to add to the list.

[Kayla M KingSmallwood]

11:43 PM on 02/13/2011

This wouldn't be a problem if we had universal healthcare like other countries do. Instead the people we vote for care more about those in the heathcare industry who buy them instead of caring for the American people. They lie to us and try to tell us that universal healthcare is evil and doesn't work which is a lie. People in other countries with universal healthcare are better cared for and studies have proven that those people live longer then Americans do because they all get free health coverage no matter what. They don't have nearly as many people dying from cancer, heat disease, diabetes, etc. Until we have universal healthcare people will continue to suffer and die at the hands of the government and those in the healthcare industry.

[johnjam101]

01:25 AM on 02/14/2011

if only Americans were not afraid to do the smart thing here.
fanned for your comment ..
that's quite a name you're hanging out there.

[ChrisJones]

01:34 AM on 02/14/2011

I agree with you 100% F & F

[Salty too]

10:49 PM on 02/13/2011

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8HnkxIh62dQ&h=7fea0 Obamacare = Nocare

[williamg]

10:59 PM on 02/13/2011

Well, if Facebook says so.

[williamg]

10:48 PM on 02/13/2011

HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Nelson Montana wrote:

"No one really knows what Obamacare will do. They only know what it's promising to do. ...And for those of you who are about to respond with accusation­s of my being a "right winged tea bagger" save your insipid cliche's. I feel healthcare can only be reformed if it were a social program with a single payer system, preferably on a sliding scale according to income. As it stands, Obamacare is nothing more than a mandate to buy insurance from the same thieves who've been selling it all along."

======================================================


Again, we ended up with a multi-paye­r system (with state options for creating and federally funding single payer plans) WITH a sliding scale subsidy program.

So we ended up with a system that looks pretty much like what they have in Switzerlan­d and the Netherland­s -- and last I checked, the WHO ranks the Netherland­s ahead of the UK. And the UK is about as single payer as you can get.

So its time to move on from the ideologica­l fetishes, before you start sounding dogmatic like republican­s....

[johnjam101]

01:32 AM on 02/14/2011

I wish it were like the Swiss system.
The health care bill we got is what it is due to the political climate of our country. I'm amazed we got what we did. There is a chance we can modify and improve it but the reality is the nation can not afford the health care system we have. There is way to much profit and overhead built into the current system. Every profit center from insurers to doctors and hospitals will fight the major steps needed to get it affordable. Perhaps we need to get more desperate before we make the big change to universal health care.

[williamg]

10:42 PM on 02/13/2011

HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Nelson Montana writes:

"What makes you think it'll help people with preexistin­g conditions­? Because that's what they told you? You do realize that even if they must treat the condition, they can still dictate price. And you'll be mandated to pay it. (Didn't realize that one, didja?) No one can quarrel with that except, you know, blind ideologues and hopeless dreamers."

=====================================================


What the above commenter leaves out is: on average the goverment will pay for 70% of your costs. 20 million will get their health care for free. Another 12 million will get it nearly for free.


So say you are a family of 4, you don't have insurance, but want to buy it in 2016. The CBO projects your health insurance premiums would have been $14,100 WITHOUT Obamacare. Here is what it looks like because of Obamacare's subsidies:



Family Income ....Annual Family Premiums (total)....(percent of families in that income bracket)


• $30,000: ..............................$600 ........................... (34% of the population)
• $42,000: ...........................$2,400 ........................... (11% of the population)
• $54,000: ...........................$4,000 ........................... (12% of the population)
• $66,000: ...........................$6,100 ........................... (10% of the population)
• $78,000: ............................$7,900 ............................ (8% of the population)
• $90,100: ............................$9,200 ............................ (5% of the population)
• $102,100+: ......................$14,100 ........................... (15% of the population)


http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10781/11-30-Premiums.pdf

[williamg]

10:43 PM on 02/13/2011

This is what your premiums would be if 'Obamacare' did NOT pass:


Family income....Annual Family Premiums (total)....(percent of families in that income bracket)


• $30,000: ..........................$14,100........................... (34% of the population)
• $42,000: ..........................$14,100........................... (11% of the population)
• $54,000: ..........................$14,100........................... (12% of the population)
• $66,000: ..........................$14,100........................... (10% of the population)
• $78,000: ..........................$14,100............................. (8% of the population)
• $90,100: ..........................$14,100 ............................ (5% of the population)
• $102,100+: ......................$14,100 ........................... (15% of the population)

[DirtyWater]

09:56 PM on 02/13/2011

Be assured the Republicans will make this a Democratic failure plus the American public will by it.

[funserious]

09:15 PM on 02/13/2011

GOP Healthcare Reform Flop.......WHAAAAT? THIS IS A TOTAL SHOCK!!!!!!! :O

[politicorn]

08:50 PM on 02/13/2011

If the pre-existing pool allowed people to enter immediately, it would be very popular. As it is, you have to go 6 months without insurance to qualify, but for people with preexisting conditions, those 6 months could be life threatening... so people do what they have to do... go into poverty to qualify for medicaid, they get so sick they qualify for disability, take a job that offers bad insurance just so they retain creditable coverage. Plus, you don't qualify if you lost your coverage for non-payment, and most people can't afford cobra, so if you can't afford your cobra coverage, you won't qualify for the high risk pool, either.

Basically, the high risk pool is one of those programs setup to make it almost impossible to work... not surprising it was developed by the Republicans.

[DoTheMath]

08:46 PM on 02/13/2011

"Where necessary to make a regulation of interstate commerce effective, Congress may regulate even those intrastate activities that do not themselves substantially affect interstate commerce."

"The regulation of an intrastate activity may be essential to a comprehensive regulation of interstate commerce even though the intrastate activity does not itself “substantially affect” interstate commerce."

"Moreover, as the passage from Lopez quoted above suggests,
Congress
may
regulate
even
noneconomic
local
activity
if that regulation is a necessary part of a more general regulation of interstate commerce."

Justice Scalia, concurring opinion, Gonzales v. Raich, June 6, 2005
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-1454.ZC.html

[matwin]

07:44 PM on 02/13/2011

Before Obamacare I was not in a 'high risk' pool, just our 'normal' corporate insurance plan. I paid $504/month for a PPO. I had a $3000 deductable and then 80% coverage, in system up to $30000, at which point I was capped. Obamacare removed the cap. I had typical medical bills until I had a very bad infection that cost $30k. I was then hit at a stop light by a car being driven at 95mph. My insurance paid $6000 in medical and the plaintiff's insurer will pay nothing until 2 years is up. My medical bills are over $50000 and that insurance company is challenging the need for CAT scans and MRIs as necessary medical procedures.

Without Obamacare I would not have been able to call the insurance company's bluff and get full restitution for medical care that is their responsibility.

[williamg]

10:21 PM on 02/13/2011

I appreciate you sharing that.

[Dustee]

10:35 PM on 02/13/2011

I'm glad you called their bluff, I wish other would. Thanks for sharing! :)

[mikeinoregon]

06:17 PM on 02/13/2011

So we destroy the existing system to enroll 12K people? Out of 330 million? Whoop ti do! Sound pretty outrageous to me.

[nico88]

06:34 PM on 02/13/2011

Explain how the existing system has been destroyed. Please provide details how you have bee affected by the new law.

[bytheC]

06:36 PM on 02/13/2011

You mean the CEO's won't be getting huge bonuses this year? I don't know about you, my insurance is still intact. Do tell how the system has been destroyed?

[Hillbilly49]

05:27 PM on 02/13/2011

Average Americans have been bombarded with misinformation by Faux Nooze and right wing hate radio; concerning the new Comprehensive Health Care Law.  As Americans learn the facts about the new Comprehensive Health Care Law; the more they appreciate what it does for them.  The lies and half truths fabricated by right wing extremists are being discovered by average Americans and the new polls indicated without any doubt that Americans love the components of the new Comprehensive Health Care Law.  Let’s help our right wing friends embrace the future and appreciate all of the benefits of the Comprehensive Health Care Law.

[KevinFitzz]

04:08 PM on 02/13/2011

Health care is in the US Constitution in the very first sentence..." to promote the general welfare".

[Hillbilly49]

05:29 PM on 02/13/2011

Thanks for pointing that out; right winger do love the constitution.

[Fattonecat]

04:07 PM on 02/13/2011

Disingenuous tripe is always a big fail.