Don’t dive into high-risk pool

The replacement for the ACA concerns me. Kentucky has already had a high-risk insurance pool, Kentucky Access.

It covered fewer than 5,000 people at its peak, there was a waiting list to get in it, the premiums were higher than many could afford, and like other commercial insurance at the time, there was a clause that your policy wouldn’t cover treatment for your pre-existing condition for the first 12 months.

The cost of the insurance, combined with the out-of-pocket costs of benefits and the pre-existing condition clause, placed it out of reach for people who needed it most. Nothing in the new bill indicates how this won’t happen again.

As for selling insurance across state lines, the ACA already provides for this, but few plans do it. However, let’s assume that all 50 states will have the same minimum coverage requirements. An out-of-state insurer would have to either build up its own network, or rent another insurance company’s PPO network (such as United Healthcare), then train and install a sales force.

Would you take on that expense to insure anyone in a state with the highest rate of cancer, the highest rate of Type 2 diabetes and the highest rate of cardiovascular disease?

Kentuckians will be hurt badly, by this plan, except, of course, for our senators, representatives and their staffs, whose plans will still be required to have the current minimum coverage requirements.

This story was originally published May 12, 2017 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Don’t dive into high-risk pool."