Sen. Patrick Ballantine has sponsored the bills to accomplish this, but they have stalled in committee. The value of a high-risk pool, not only to those who are "medically uninsurable" but also to the overall health insurance market, is so clear that federal grant funds are now available to help those states without a high-risk pool develop one.
The high-risk pool is funded by affordable premiums paid by those who need the pool, plus a subsidy which is assessed through the insurance companies and is estimated to cost only $6 per person (no more than $20 per person per year). Would we not gladly pay under $20 per year so that we or someone we love could have this pool available to them?
Our Web site, www.ncchirp.org, describes the "best practices" of states with good high-risk pools and has stories of North Carolina citizens who have worked and paid insurance premiums for years. They are not poor enough or old enough to get help from Medicaid or Medicare. Yet their only option is to work for a large company with benefits or pay the highly expensive premiums for BCBS's last-resort policy. This scenario does not help the entrepreneurs who might start up the large companies in North Carolina's future.
It is a real shame if the high-risk pool bill dies in committee yet another year.
Nancy Winter
Durham
