A New Option for Uninsured Residents in Louisiana

If you’ve been unable to get private health insurance because of an illness or disability, you may now have an answer to your dilemma.

See Also: Health Care Reform: What's in Effect, What's Still to Come

The Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP), created as part of last year’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), is making health care coverage available to people who previously did not have access or could not afford it because they have a pre-existing medical condition.

99,036 uninsured Louisiana residents with pre-existing conditions, may be eligible for the new insurance.

The publicly funded PCIP program has been designed to help the uninsured until 2014, when the ACA will begin requiring the private insurance industry to cover people despite their pre-existing illnesses or disabilities.

The new plans are an alternative to the high-risk pools that many states now offer to people locked out of the insurance market. The PCIP’s have lower premiums, and they require no waiting period for the coverage of pre-existing conditions.

The PCIP program will improve the health care of the previously uninsured, help them become more self-sufficient and ease the financial burden on the health care professionals and facilities that have had to provide uncompensated care.
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