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Some Republican leaders are promoting state high-risk pools as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act's popular provision requiring health plans to accept consumers regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. They cite Wisconsin's pre-ACA pool, the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan, as a model. But a Wisconsin insurance official recently cautioned a House panel that high-risk pools need a stable funding source and are not a solution for every state. Other experts say state high-risk pools generally were a policy failure across the country, and making them work properly would require a large amount of taxpayer funding. (Meyer, 2/13)

For many Republicans looking to scrap the Affordable Care Act, the fix will come from separating people into two pools. The lower-cost one would be for healthy people. Those with expensive medical conditions that drive up health spending would be sorted into the more expensive "high-risk" pool. (Zdechlik, 2/13)