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Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan: 1,200 People Approved So Far

Author:     ARTHUR DELANEY
Source:     The Huffington Post
Publication Date:     8/27/2010 17:19
 Link: Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan: 1,200 People Approved So Far
Stephan:   Now we begin to see the torturous reality of the incremental path chosen by the Obama administration in lieu of a public option and universal health care. At this rate it could be a decade or more before people get processed. And note the fees that will be charged. No family with an income of less than $100,000 could afford a straight fee-for-services out-of-pocket payment system as some have proposed. And even $100,000 would not be enough if they had a child with a chronic condition. This is just another of the poison pills built into the recent legislation to prolong the illness profit industry.

Just 1,200 people have been approved so far for a new program to provide insurance coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

The program, known as the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, launched in July as one of the immediate benefits of the new health care reform law, offering coverage to the uninsurable until 2014 when people should be able to choose from affordable policies available on an ‘exchange.’

There are roughly four million people uninsured because of pre-existing conditions, and Democrats touted the new program as one of the best immediate provisions of health care reform. But the PCIP’s administrators have said they expect it to reach only 350,000 over the next three years. The program is run by the federal government in 22 states and by the state government in the rest.

Kaiser Health News reported that 3,600 people have applied and about 1,200 have been approved for the PCIP. An obstacle is the program’s steep premiums, which range from $140 to $900 depending on an applicant’s age and location, and its requirement that people be uninsured for six months before applying (though the PCIP is still less expensive and more generous than existing high-risk pools operating in 35 states.)

‘As of August 1, […]

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