Kansas Sets Up Insurance Pool for Pre-Existing Conditions

The state of Kansas is in the midst of implementing a great idea as far as offering temporary health insurance coverage for those who have pre-existing medical conditions and at the same time have not had health insurance coverage in the last six months. Kansas officials are taking applications for this temporary insurance program at this time. Only qualified applicants will be accepted.

The applications that the state of Kansas will collect from perspective consumers will help the state determine information about the shape of health insurance coverage in Kansas and how people feel about it. One thing it will determine is how much interest there is in such a program that offers help to those with pre-existing conditions on a temporary basis.

Linda Sheppard, the director of the accident and health division in the Kansas Insurance Commission office shared that applicants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. After their applications have been accepted, they will be closely reviewed by a board and those who are accepted will find out their fate possibly as soon as September 1, 2010.

This health insurance program is part of the new national health care reform law, and will be subsidized by $36 million in federal funds, according to a Hutchinson News report. The board of directors of the Kansas Health Insurance Association voted in late June in favor of operating this new federal program rather than have the federal government administer it themselves. Sheppard shared that depending on how many applications they receive and the cost of providing the health insurance program, this will determine how many people will be accepted and where the limit has to be drawn. “The board that will oversee the health insurance program may very possibly limit the number of people accepted.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Kansas is not alone. They are only one of twenty nine states and the District of Columbia that chose to operate their own plans, instead of allowing the federal government to take over. Sheppard stated, “Customers can expect rates based on one hundred percent of the standard for the market. They’ll look at what’s charged in a market from competing companies and use those same rates.There is an allowance to adjust rates based on tobacco use, geographic location and age. The rates are fairly simple, but exactly what their rate is will be based on where a person lives. It’s based on ZIP code.”

This temporary health insurance coverage plan will operate until Jan. 1, 2014, when the federal health reform law requires all people to have health insurance and all health insurance companies to offer coverage to all applicants at standard market rates.