Thursday, July 1, 2010

Democrats in Both Chambers Admit Problems with High-Risk Pool Program

As the Administration announces the first steps in rolling out the high-risk pool program (more than a week late), it’s worth highlighting comments in this morning’s CongressDaily article analyzing some of the difficulties associated with the program’s roll-out.  Senate HELP Committee Chairman Harkin “gave a resounding ‘oh, yes’ when asked if he thought the high-risk pools would need more money in the future.”

Meanwhile, over in the House, Rep. Ellsworth has sent around a Dear Colleague promoting legislation he intends to introduce that would eliminate the six-month period that individuals who have exhausted their COBRA continuation coverage must wait before becoming eligible for the new federal high-risk pool.  The Dear Colleague claims the six-month waiting period is unintentional, but the fact remains that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office last week confirmed that the $5 billion in risk pool funding will be insufficient to meet expected demand, and therefore “CBO assumed that HHS would use the authority given to it under the act to limit enrollment in the program.”

Even before the high-risk pool program enrolled its first person, Democrats in both chambers have admitted that the program lacks adequate funding, and will have to impose lengthy and onerous delays on access to coverage as a result.  Republicans support high-risk pool programs – but support funding them properly – because coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions should not take a back seat to other dubious spending priorities in the Democrat health care law, like backroom deals and a new $15 billion slush fund for jungle gyms and other pet projects.