W.Va. to partner with feds for high-risk coverage
By Lawrence Messina
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Up to 1,200 West Virginians could finally get coverage through the first program to emerge from the recent federal health-care legislation, state officials said Monday.
Gov. Joe Manchin has told federal officials that the state wants to contract with them to create a temporary high-risk pool as allowed by the new law.
The pool would cover West Virginians with pre-existing conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. Those eligible would have been unable to buy coverage even from the state's existing high-risk pool, known as AccessWV.
An upcoming special legislative session will feature the necessary measure to allow the state insurance commissioner to run the new program, Manchin told U.S. Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius in a Friday letter. The governor plans to call lawmakers in starting May 13 to tackle education and other issues.
States had until Friday to choose whether to start pools. Several declined, including some among the 34 states besides West Virginia that already have high-risk pools. The federal government will operate the pool program in those states.
These new high-risk pools will charge premiums on par with those paid by consumers able to buy insurance in the private market. West Virginia's will also rely on an estimated $27 million in federal funds until the end of 2013, said Nancy Malecek, AccessWV's acting director.
The temporary pools, which start in July, will expire in 2014 when the new federal law bars the denial of insurance coverage for medical reasons.
Manchin's letter to Sebelius also said his administration had not yet decided whether to run the new pool within AccessWV, as a parallel program or by hiring a private contractor to administer it. Wells Fargo oversees AccessWV's nearly 800 policies through an agreement with the Public Employees Insurance Agency, Malecek said.
Those policies cover nearly 900 people with one or more of the 45 or so presumptive health conditions recognized by AccessWV that render them medically uninsurable, she said. They pay premiums that are at least 25 percent higher than standard market rates.
By Lawrence Messina
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Up to 1,200 West Virginians could finally get coverage through the first program to emerge from the recent federal health-care legislation, state officials said Monday.
Gov. Joe Manchin has told federal officials that the state wants to contract with them to create a temporary high-risk pool as allowed by the new law.
The pool would cover West Virginians with pre-existing conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. Those eligible would have been unable to buy coverage even from the state's existing high-risk pool, known as AccessWV.
An upcoming special legislative session will feature the necessary measure to allow the state insurance commissioner to run the new program, Manchin told U.S. Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius in a Friday letter. The governor plans to call lawmakers in starting May 13 to tackle education and other issues.
States had until Friday to choose whether to start pools. Several declined, including some among the 34 states besides West Virginia that already have high-risk pools. The federal government will operate the pool program in those states.
These new high-risk pools will charge premiums on par with those paid by consumers able to buy insurance in the private market. West Virginia's will also rely on an estimated $27 million in federal funds until the end of 2013, said Nancy Malecek, AccessWV's acting director.
The temporary pools, which start in July, will expire in 2014 when the new federal law bars the denial of insurance coverage for medical reasons.
Manchin's letter to Sebelius also said his administration had not yet decided whether to run the new pool within AccessWV, as a parallel program or by hiring a private contractor to administer it. Wells Fargo oversees AccessWV's nearly 800 policies through an agreement with the Public Employees Insurance Agency, Malecek said.
Those policies cover nearly 900 people with one or more of the 45 or so presumptive health conditions recognized by AccessWV that render them medically uninsurable, she said. They pay premiums that are at least 25 percent higher than standard market rates.
