Health Insurance: Enrollment, Benefits, Funding, and Other Characteristics of State High-Risk Health Insurance Pools, GAO-09-730R, July 22, 2009
“A growing number of states–35 as of June 2009–have created high-risk health insurance pools (HRPs) primarily to provide coverage to individuals whose health status limits their access to coverage in the private individual health insurance market. HRPs–typically state-run nonprofit associations–often contract with a private health insurance carrier to administer the pool and offer a range of health plan options to such individuals, who are commonly referred to as medically uninsurable. Plan options vary within pools and from state to state, and like the private individual market, HRPs typically impose waiting periods for coverage of preexisting conditions to discourage medically uninsurable individuals from foregoing health insurance until they require care. Because of the higher health care costs typically incurred by medically uninsurable individuals, all pools operate at a loss.”
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