By the end of this year, chronically ill Michigan residents should have the opportunity to purchase affordable health care insurance, thanks to the recently passed Health Care Reform Act. In a letter sent to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michigan’s Commissioner of the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation, Ken Ross, indicated that Michigan wants to form a pool of insurance providers that would insure people who have been denied health insurance for six months because they have a chronic health problem. Chronically ill residents of other states are not so fortunate with some Republican Governors refusing to create insurance pools for the chronically ill.
Bridging the gap until 2014, when the health insurance exchanges will go into effect for all Americans, this measure taken by Michigan will help those whom have been denied the chance to health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. Under the recently enacted Health Care Reform Act, the federal government will give $5 billion to states to create pools for the uninsured with chronic illness. 34 other states already have such measures.
State of Michigan officials plan to meet with health insurance companies to discuss the best way to create the pool. Subcontracting to one of the state’s health insurers seems the most likely method at this time of initiating the program.
