The wait for 4-year interim high-risk pools to provide temporary health insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions should be over this week. That’s according to the time frame laid out in health care reform legislation. The reality is less certain.

Under law, states (or the federal government, if states declined) were to have made coverage available 90 days after the healthcare bill became law. That was last Monday. Obama said last week that by July 1, uninsured people would be able to purchase healthcare coverage. So where are these new high-risk pools? Still in development, apparently.

20 states should receive funding to start their pools soon. 20 other states have punted to the federal government, which hasn’t announced its plan yet. But the word is that many states will have applications available this Thursday, July 1, for coverage beginning in August or beyond. Believe it or not, there is no other information available, even at the government source, http://www.hhs.gov/ociio/initiative/hi_risk_pool_facts.html.

So, the best advice I can give you is to monitor www.healthcare.gov — a health plan directory for individuals and small businesses — beginning July 1, which is when the site is supposed to go live. It will list all public and private plans available in your area. One caveat: as health plans are still able to refuse coverage or overcharge you for any pre-existing condition, you are given no guarantee these plans are available to YOU, specifically. So you will need to pay careful attention to whether the listed plan is a high-risk pool or not.

Remember, to qualify for a temporary high-risk pool, you must have gone without healthcare coverage for at least 6 months and be ineligible for other coverage due to a pre-existing condition. You may not switch from an expensive small business plan to a less expensive high-risk pool. Healthcare reform legislation is not about providing affordable coverage to all — it is about extending current expensive coverage, for primarily low-quality care, to more. That, unfortunately, is the extent of it!

© 2010 Actively Fused LLC