A Shaky Debut for High- Risk Insurance Pools

摘要

Government-funded health plans for high-risk patients, an early feature of the new health-care law, have attracted just 2 percent of expected users. The disappointing start has given Republicans, once champions of the plans, ammunition in their push to repeal President Barack Obama's entire health-care overhaul passed last March. Much of the law phases in over time: A ban on private insurers denying adults with preexisting medical conditions doesn't start until 2014. To fill the gap for those consumers, $5 billion was set aside to fund high-risk insurance pools that were put into effect in July, offering one of the first tests of the overhaul's usefulness.