Dive Brief:
- The ACA's temporary pool program for high-risk patients is ending after three extensions.
- Though the program was scheduled to close at the end of last year, given that the reform law requires health insurers to accept all comers despite health history, it was kept alive to help some of the chronically ill with their transition.
- Even health advocates seem content with the closure of the program, given that falling enrollment numbers suggest that more high-risk consumers have found coverage through other channels, the Washington Post reported.
Dive Insight:
As with many other aspects of the ACA rollout, the high risk pool seems to have played out differently than expected. Insurers are still going to be facing many other uncertainties, most particularly how to price high-risk patients without the help with the program. But in public statements to the press and Wall Street financial analysts, insurers have said that they feel confident that they will be able to adjust by 2015 if not this year.