PA beats other states in high-risk health insurance push

With about 3,600 people now enrolled in its PA Fair Care program, Pennsylvania is an unusually productive outlier when it comes to recruiting customers to its 10-month-old, high-risk, health insurance plan. The 2010 Affordable Care Act called for $5 billion in federal subsidies to be spent on creating a "pre-existing condition insurance plan" in each state, one of the first provisions of the healthcare overhaul to be put into effect. But nearly a year into the program, nationwide interest in the plans has been underwhelming so far. The plans are meant to enroll people who have a difficult time getting policies on the individual market because of previous illnesses or conditions that put them in higher risk categories, making them too expensive to cover. To be eligible, a person must be without insurance for at least six months and prove that he has a health condition that limits his access to insurance.