HHS May Renege On Coverage For Preexisting Conditions

Jay Angoff, HHS director of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, acknowledges that the interim high risk pools created to cover people with preexisting conditions between now and 2014, when health insurers are forced to cover them, may well run out of cash and be forced to turn the sickest people away before private market insurance is available to them. Applications for insurance from the pools, funded by $ 5 billion in federal cash, opened July 1. Richard Popper, Angoff's deputy director, acknowledges at the same time that proposed plan premiums of $ 140 to $ 900 per month may also serve to exclude a lot of people with preexisting conditions from these plans.