The federal Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) program — a program that has the capacity to cover about 200,000 uninsured people with serious health problems — had 12,437 enrollees Feb. 1, officials say.
PCIP enrollment has increased from 8,011 since Nov. 1, 2010.
The states with more than 500 PCIP enrollees are California, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The states with fewer than 50 enrollees are Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Massachusetts and Vermont already have other programs that are similar to PCIPs.
Congress included a fixed $5 billion funding amount for PCIP in the Affordable Care Act, the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
PCIP program managers are supposed to use the money to help people who cannot qualify for conventional, medically underwritten medical insurance get coverage between now and 2014, when PPACA calls for a national ban on health insurance medical underwriting to take effect and for insurance exchanges to sell subsidized, guaranteed-issue coverage.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the United States may be home to about 5.6 million uninsured with serious health problems.
The state PCIP programs are administered by the states in 23 states and the District of Columbia and by the federal government in 27 states.
The PCIP programs began accepting applications from July to Oct. 25.
- Allison Bell
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