N.C. High-Risk Pool Appears Unlikely to Pass This Session

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The creation of a special health insurance pool for thousands of North Carolinians who aren’t insured or can’t afford coverage because of chronic illness likely won’t be heard in the Senate before the session ends.

The House approved the high-risk pool earlier this month, but Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand said there’s not enough time to handle the bill before the General Assembly adjourns for the year.

“Will it come up? The short answer is no,” said Rand, D-Cumberland, adding that work in the final days will be focused on ethics and lobbying legislation and other compromise bills.

“To try to do a bill of this magnitude in two days is irresponsible,” Rand said.

The pool would guarantee coverage to patients with premiums of no more than 150 percent the rate of an individual covered by a standard health care plan. Premiums and a fee on insurers of up to $2, phased in through 2012, per each traditional customer it serves would go into the pool to pay the health care costs of the high-risk patients.

The pool, projected to provide coverage to about 9,000 patients, was recommended by a North Carolina Institute of Medicine task force.

The panel examined how to reduce the number of uninsured patients in North Carolina, which is estimated at 1.3 million for those under the age of 65.

The Senate likely will recommend that the high-risk pool idea be studied before the next session, Rand said.