UPDATE: Thirty-One States Diving into High Risk Insurance Pools; Others Not Taking the Leap

As of the April 30^th deadline, 31 states have elected to run temporary high risk insurance pools to provide affordable, quality insurance coverage to those who are uninsured due to a pre-existing condition. Fifteen states have explicitly said they want the Federal government to run a program for their residents, while the remaining states have not notified HHS yet of their decision.   Five billion dollars is available to support the operation of these state high risk insurance pools, which must be in place by July 1, 2010.  

Thirty-five states already operate their own high risk insurance pools, which gives them the opportunity to modify their existing pools to align with Federal standards.  Of these, 17 states, including Florida, Louisiana and Texas, have chosen not to participate in the Federal temporary high risk pool program outlined in the PPACA.  Many existing state high risk pools do not meet the quality and benefit standards that must be met in order to qualify part of the $5 billion available to the states.

In a letter dated May 10, 2010, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued application guidelines to states willing to work with HHS to establish a state high risk pool pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).  The guidelines and state application packet are available here. 

To learn more about these high risk insurance pools, click here. To find out if your state has its own high risk insurance pool, click here.

State High Risk Pool Solicitation.PDF