# High-Risk Pools Ease Transition 

The result would be fewer patients falling through the cracks. 

March 6, 2017 • Commentary 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

This article appeared on *[USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/)* on March 5, 2017. 

High-risk pools can help transition to a system that makes high-quality medical care affordable and secure for patients with high-cost conditions. Obamacare is utterly failing in this regard. And while congressional Republicans are eyeing state-run high-risk pools, their approach is also woefully inadequate.

Government is not the solution to the problem of pre-existing conditions. Government *is* the problem.

The result would be fewer patients falling through the cracks.

Congress bestows favorable tax treatment on employer-sponsored health insurance, a type of coverage that disappears for no good reason when workers change jobs, lose jobs or retire; for kids when they turn 18 or 26; and for spouses following a divorce or the worker’s death. Only government could push 160 million Americans into health insurance that’s as reliable as a faulty parachute.

Too often, employer coverage disappears *after* workers or their loved ones develop expensive medical conditions. Government thus turns what would be *insured* conditions into *pre-existing* conditions.

Fixing this problem requires repealing Obamacare and replacing it with [expanded health savings accounts](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelcannon/2015/12/10/large-hsas-trump-obamacare-lite-tax-credits-at-delivering-better-health-care/&refURL=&referrer=). Workers could control the $700 billion employers spend on health benefits each year, using it to buy secure, portable coverage.

During the transition, high-risk pools could subsidize those with uninsurable pre-existing conditions. The result would be fewer patients falling through the cracks.

Obamacare’s “solution” is to force insurers to cover pre-existing conditions, which will leave many sick and healthy patients alike uninsured. Obamacare is in a “death spiral,” according to Princeton economist [Uwe Reinhardt](http://www.vox.com/2016/8/25/12630214/obamacare-marketplaces-death-spiral). Some [43,000](http://acasignups.net/17/02/15/updates-and-so-it-begins-humana-says-screw-you-guys-im-going-home) Tennesseans may have no way to buy coverage in 2018.

Republicans are planning to subsidize pre-existing conditions in separate high-risk pools. But since their evolving plan would neither fully repeal Obamacare nor let workers control that $700 billion, it won’t make coverage more secure for the sick. No amount of government Band-Aids will stop the bleeding from this government-inflicted wound.

##### About the Author 

[![Michael F. Cannon](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Michael%20Cannon.jpg?itok=0UROn8Dc)](/people/michael-f-cannon) 

##### [Michael F. Cannon](/people/michael-f-cannon)

Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute

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