Remember that whole fracas two summers ago about health care? Well I looked in the history books, and checked out a few old editions of our paper, and apparently that law overhauling the U.S. health care system actually passed – and it’s still taking effect! Who knew? Not only that, but NPR’s health blog reports that Montana leads the nation in the proportion of people who have signed up for the new health law’s insurance program for those with preexisting conditions.
Like many statistics in Montana, however, that number still remains quite low, at 198. As of March, 18,313 people have signed up for Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan in March, up from 12,437 the previous month. Those numbers, however, are still way below what experts predicted enrollment would be for these high-risk pools (Experts predicted 375,000 would have enrolled by the end of last year). The program is designed to provide insurance until the health care law takes full effect in 2014 and insurers can no longer deny people with preexisting conditions coverage.
Pennsylvania has the highest enrollment with 2,684, while North Dakota has the lowest, with just 6 folks (I wonder if that corresponds with the low unemployment there). Check out the rest of the NPR blog or more information on this program that many people are unaware of.