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Posting date: October 23, 2002 Copyright © 2003 by Project HOPE
Perspective: Expanding Individual Health Insurance Coverage: Are High-Risk Pools The Answer?
1 Deborah Chollet is a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
*Corresponding author.
Thirty states operate high-risk pools intended to offer coverage to persons denied coverage in the individual health insurance market. But in most states the high-risk pool mirrors the individual market's problems: Coverage is expensive, the waiting period for coverage of preexisting conditions is long, and benefits may be limited. A few states with high-risk pools have addressed these problems by adequately funding high enrollment and comprehensive benefits; some also require the market to accept more risk. But most discourage enrollment in the high-risk pool in myriad ways and fail to ensure access to the individual market for persons with health problems. Key Words: Insurance Coverage, Access To Care, State/Local Issues, Health Reform
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