Federal funding of high risk pools
H.R. 4519
The Library of Congress
THOMAS
2/3/2006 - Presented to President.
State High Risk Pool Funding Extension Act of 2006
Seed grants to states for creation and initial operation of a high risk pool for fiscal year 2006: $15,000,000.
Grants for operational losses plus bonus grants for supplemental consumer benefits for fiscal years 2006 through 2010: $75,000,000 for each fiscal year
http://thomas.loc.gov/ (enter HR 4519 as bill number)
And…
State High-Risk Health Insurance Pool Participation
Kaiser Family Foundation
statehealthfacts.org
December 31, 2004
United States: 182,381 participants
Number of states without pools: 17
Comment: By Don McCanne, M.D.
A fundamental principle of health insurance is to share the costs of the few who are sick with the many who are healthy. This principle applies in all industrialized nations, except the United States.
The success of our private health plans is partly dependent on how effective they are in avoiding coverage of the high risk sector. Some of the tools they use include medical underwriting, selective marketing, unaffordable premiums, benefit exclusions, and cancellation of group plans with unfavorable experience ratings. Regardless of how they do it, they have been very successful. You probably have friends or family members, or perhaps even yourself, who have been unable to purchase insurance in the individual market.
Since markets never seek out losses, only public policies can solve this problem. Every other nation has provided coverage for everyone, but they have been able to do so only through the application of public policies.
How are we doing here in the United States? With the federal government willing to contribute only an average of $1.5 million per state, it is obvious that they have walked away from the problem. And the states? 17 of them don’t even have a program (and that doesn’t include Florida which closed theirs to enrollment in 1991). With a paltry 182,000 covered throughout the nation, it is obvious that the states also have refused to establish public policies which would seriously address this problem.
With health care systems that spend on average half of what we do, how have all other nations successfully addressed this problem? Well, it’s very simple. They’ve mandated, through public policy, that everyone will be covered.
(This message has been truncated to avoid a display of belligerence towards those who perpetuate our policies that result in personal financial ruin, physical misery and even death, in the face of the world’s greatest wealth.)