The Federal and State funded programs for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) have suspended new enrollments due to lack of funding. The Federal plan was a temporary program created to provide insurance coverage for appropriately 375,000 individuals with pre-existing conditions. The goal of the PCIP program was to provide coverage for those who needed it until the 2014 health exchanges were available to the public.

It should not be surprising that the $5 billion dollars which was allocated is running low on funds due to the high medical costs of the enrollees. Only 130,000 people are currently insured in the plan. One requirement for enrollment was to be without insurance for 6 months. That provision made it more difficult for chronic illnesses to be managed successfully thus increasing care needs once they were accepted into the plan.

The U.S. government has stated that individuals already accepted into the plan will continue to receive their benefits. Individuals that were hoping to apply now will need to hold out until January 2014. At that time, premiums offered in the health exchanges are supposed to be “affordable” but don’t expect them to be as reasonably priced as the current PCIP monthly premiums.

For more information you can view this link or visit your state’s PCIP web site.  https://www.pcip.gov/