My understanding is that within 3 months of the passage of health reform the administration is going to give $5 billion a year in grants to the states to help fund their pre-existing condition pools.
So my questions are
-
Do people in those pools qualify for subsidies for premiums? The premiums for someone in their 50s can easily be $700/month per person on a pre-existing condition pool.
-
Can you move across state lines and still qualify for pools? If you change jobs your insurance is supposed to transfer due to HIPAA. After all these in state high risk pools are set up (there are already pools in 34 states), would a person be able to move from North Carolina to Indiana and take their high risk insurance with them w/o going through another pre-existing condition exclusion (normally you have to wait 3-12 months before pre-existing conditions are covered), plus I think you need 12+ months of residency in a state before you can qualify for the pool. So right now if you move from state to state, I think you need 12 months residency & 3-12 months pre-existing condition exclusion before your conditions are covered. Would that change under the new health law or would you still need to wait 15-24 months before you qualified for the pool in the new state?