Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), people with disabilities who were without employer-sponsored insurance or eligible for a public program such as Medicare or Medicaid were generally unable to get a private health insurance plan as they would be rejected for pre-existing conditions. Some of the ACA alternatives that have been proposed incorporate a high risk pool to cover these individuals. Prior to the ACA, many states had high risk pools for this very situation. A new issue brief out by the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the history of high risk pools both prior to the ACA and after its passage. To download a copy of the issue brief, click here.