Per-person cost of federal high-risk medical plan doubles

Medical costs for enrollees in the healthcare law's high-risk insurance pools are expected to more than double initial predictions, the Obama administration said Thursday in a report on the new program. The healthcare law set aside $5 billion for a Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan. Since its launch last summer, nearly 50,000 Americans have enrolled. Participants are projected to have significantly higher medical costs than initially expected—an average of $28,994 in 2012 according to the report—and more than double what government-contracted actuaries predicted in November 2010. Then, the analysts expected that the program would cost $13,026 per enrollee.