ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Since the health care reform discussion began, one of the biggest challenges has been to find a way to help those with pre-existing conditions get health insurance coverage. President Obama, congressional Democrats, and some Republicans believe that insurance companies should be forced to accept all applicants, regardless of health condition.

As the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) has pointed out in the past, this policy, known as "guaranteed issue," has been a disaster for states that have implemented it. When people know they cannot be denied, they often wait until they have an expensive condition to buy insurance. This causes rates to skyrocket for everyone else.

There is a solution that helps those with pre-existing conditions get health insurance and keeps rates affordable for the rest of the population: high risk pools.

Congress is set to fund high risk pools for the first few years before health care reform takes effect and then phase them out. We at CAHI believe this to be a mistake. Our new Issues and Answers publication, State High Risk Pools: A Low-Cost Solution to Access to Coverage, makes the case that high risk pools should be a permanent solution to helping those with pre-existing conditions and are a far better and less costly solution than guaranteed issue. As President Obama said about the concept of high risk pools, "This was a good idea when Senator John McCain proposed it in the campaign, it's a good idea now, and we should embrace it."

To view the publication click on the following link : State High Risk Pools: A Low- Cost Solution to the Problem of Access to Coverage

About the Council for Affordable Health Insurance

Founded in 1992, CAHI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy association whose mission is to promote access, affordability and choice in American health care. CAHI's membership includes health insurance companies (active in the individual, small group, HSA and senior markets), small businesses, physicians, actuaries and insurance producers and brokers.

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