The government website for the new health-care law, HealthCare.gov, is now up. Overall it is a slick and user-friendly site. Clearly, a lot of work went into the web design. It’s just another sign of how the Obama Administration is determined to sell the new law, although it won’t serve many people at this point.
The important thing is that the site contains a link to the application process for the new “pre-existing conditions insurance plan.” This is the so-called temporary high-risk-pool system that the new law will soon create.
To qualify, you will need to have been uninsured for at least six months and had trouble getting health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Premiums for this program are still expected to be fairly high. Since Congress did not properly fund the program I can't guarantee that it will not undergo serious modifications, such as freezing or eliminating enrollment before 2014. But if you meet the qualifications and have struggled to find health insurance by any other means, it’s an option worth pursuing, and you should try to apply as soon as possible.
I think it is important to note again that if Congress had just expanded the successful public Medicare health-insurance program, like it did in Libby, Montana, the people most in need of health insurance could have started getting coverage in much less time than it took to put up this website.
No comments:
Post a Comment