Agency: Insurance

Line Item: Federal HIPUtah

Function

As of July 2010 in response to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the state entered into a contract with U.S. Health and Human Services to operate the "Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan" (PCIP) known as Federal HIPUtah. Federal HIP is a temporary high-risk health insurance pool to provide health insurance coverage to currently uninsured individuals with pre-existing conditions who have been without insurance for at least 6 months. This federal program is run in conjunction with the state program and provides coverage for approximately 1,200 individuals.

Federal HIPUtah will only provide coverage until 2014, when health exchanges become available and pre-existing condition exclusions are prohibited. To date, Federal HIPUtah has been allocated approximately $460 million to provide coverage for about 2,400 individuals through 2014. No state funds are used to operate the federal high risk pool.

Funding Detail

Funding for the federal high risk pool is comprised largely of federal dollars and includes dedicated credits from the premiums paid by members of the program.