The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010, creates a temporary national high-risk pool to provide health coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions who have been uninsured for six months. This high-risk pool will be implemented quickly and will provide temporary coverage until the broader coverage provisions take effect in January 2014. The health reform law establishes basic requirements for the high-risk pool program that will be implemented ninety days after enactment, on June 21, 2010 (Table 1). On April 2, 2010, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote to states to explain the basic requirements of the temporary high-risk pool and to solicit their interest in operating the coverage program. This summary provides responses to basic questions regarding the temporary high-risk pool.

Full report:  Explaining Health Care Reform: Questions About the Temporary High-Risk Pool (PDF | 170.37 KB)

Kaiser Family Foundation. (2010). Explaining health care reform: questions about the temporary high-risk pool.