title: Expanding individual health insurance coverage: are high-risk pools the answer?
abstract: 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 fall to ensure access to the individual market for persons with health problems.
authors.affiliation: Mathematica Policy Research, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chollet
mesh_terms: D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D015271:Insurance Pools / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000145:classification; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D013221:State Health Plans; D014481:United States