People Left Out of the Patients’ Bill of Rights
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) echoes the conclusion previously expressed by Medicare’s Chief Actuary, that the soon to be established high-risk pool “subsidies would not be sufficient to cover the cost of all applicants.” While “the number of people who may be eligible for this program is in the millions” average enrollment would hover around just 200,000 people.
In April, the Medicare actuaries predicted that, “By 2011 and 2012 the initial $5 billion in Federal funding for [high-risk pools] would be exhausted, resulting in substantial premium increases to sustain the program.”
Just a couple of million people. Small oversight.
The question is: who picks up the tab once the fund runs out? Are the enrollees going to be left without insurance? Will states be expected to pay out of their budgets?
This is why 20 states opted not to participate.
This seems to me to be worse than the accusations the White House has been hurling at the insurance companies. They are telling about 2 million people they are going to get a benefit, but they are providing the funding for only 10% of that number.
The House Ways and Means Republicans have a post on this very subject at their site today:
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=192550
No matter how you structure the program, the cost of medical care for people with chronic conditions will be high. Backers of the health care bill assume forcing young, healthy people into the risk pool will make coverage (and care) affordable. It is not that simple. The CBO estimates that $5 billion to fund high risk pools is inadequate to care for people who may find coverage unaffordable. Trying to finance health reform through employer mandates and taxpayer subsidies will also be inadequate in the coming years.
I agree with Devon.
By definition, a high risk pool either needs to charge a LOT of money for premiums or it needs a sustainable source of outside subsidies. If your source of cash isn’t stable, then the only other option is to raise premiums or hope for a cure for whatever diseases put people in the high risk pool to begin with.