Only 8,011 U.S. residents had health coverage through the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) program in early November 2010.
The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), Denver, has posted the enrollment figures for the federal PCIP risk pool program, which was started this past summer, on its website.
As of Nov. 1, 2010, the older, state-based risk pool programs had about 208,000 enrollees.
The federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) – the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act – created a $5 billion Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) program to fill in coverage gaps before a nationwide ban on medical underwriting is supposed to take effect in 2014.
Congress wants the PCIP program to give individuals with serious health problems access to coverage at rates comparable to individual rates in the commercial market.
The program is open to individuals with serious pre-existing conditions who have been uninsured for at least 6 months
Some states are letting the federal government run their PCIP programs, and others are running their own risk plans.
PCIP risk pool enrollment is under 200 in about 40 states, and it is less than 5% of the level of state risk pool enrollment in most states with traditional state risk pools, according to the NCSL.
PCIP enrollment is greater than state risk pool enrollment in Florida and equal to about 25% of state risk pool enrollment in North Carolina.
The state with the highest PCIP enrollment, Pennsylvania, started November 2010 with 1,657 PCIP enrollees.
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