Is the Federal Government subsidizing health insurance right now?

[Winterblues]

There was s short video on Rachel last night, created by the Administration, supposedly showing the human side of Health Insurance Reform. In that video a woman got some disease and was dropped from her insurance. She was unable to get insurance because of her disease and had to spend all of her retirement for treatments and tests. All of a sudden because of the Insurance Reform bill Insurance (High Risk) was made available to her. They were broke and deeply in debt so I am wondering how she was able to afford this "High Risk" policy. Are subsidies available now?

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. I could be wrong, but I thought no subsidies would be available until

next year, and then only for a select few - that it wouldn't kick in more generally until 2014.

[county worker]

2. She was denied insurance because she had cancer when she applied for coverage.

She got into the high risk pool provided by the HCR act and most likely it is paid for by Medicaid, or in CA that would be Medical. Providers are reimbursed 61.59% of their billing rate for treatment by Medicaid/Medical. The other 38.49% is called a match and for us in our clinics that is covered by grants and State sales taxes and vehicle license fees.