This article provides information on a state option in the American Health Care Act (AHCA) that allows for high-risk pools in health insurance plans. These plans place persons with preexisting conditions into a pool with others who may have high health care costs. In the past, high-risk pools have not made the cost of insurance affordable or provided adequate coverage to persons with or without preexisting conditions. High-risk pools operated in 35 states before the ACA was passed. At that time, the United States had 47 million uninsured people, 33 million of whom lived in states with high-risk pools. The authors believe that any legislation providing for high-risk pools would be a huge step backward for American health care policy.
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Requests for Single Reprints: Jean P. Hall, PhD, University of Kansas Medical Center, Department of Health Policy and Management, Mail Stop 3044, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS 66160; e-mail, jhall@ku.edu.