State To Miss Deadline For First Steps In Health Care Reform

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jun 22, 2010 2:20PM

The Sun-Times is reporting that Illinois will miss the July 1 deadline to establish a temporary high-risk health insurance pool for people with pre-existing conditions. State-run insurance pools are mandated under the sweeping health care reform package passed by congress earlier this year. The delay is due to the General Assembly's failure to pass the necessary legislation, which would enable the state to operate the federal program through the existing Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan. Illinois already has a contract in place with Blue Cross Blue Shield to insure high-risk enrollees but, according to Illinois Department of Insurance director Michael McRaith, the lack of appropriate legislation means that the state will go through the procurement process to find a plan administrator to insure people with pre-existing conditions, a process which could delay enrollment until August.

States had 90 days from the enactment of the federal legislation to establish such pools, which will be replaced in 2014 by insurance exchanges that let people shop for coverage. The federal government will give Illinois $196 million to set up the insurance pool, which would provide coverage to about 5,000 people between now and 2014. Because that number is far smaller than the estimated 2.5 million people in the state that have chronic conditions, demand will out-pace supply and there will be a limit as to who can enroll. "We have to manage that program in a way that we don't say to people in 2013, 'We're running out of money. You have to find health care somewhere else,' " McRaith told the Sun-Times.