THE STRUCTURE AND EXPERIENCE OF STATE RISK POOLS - 1988-1994

State risk pools are state-sponsored plans for persons who want to buy health insurance but are medically uninsurable or unable to find poli cies at reasonable cost. This article reviews the structure of all poo ls and describes in more detail the experiences of eight pools. Althou gh pools grew in number and size in the late 1980s, most pools subsequ ently stabilized in size. The eight risk pools studied had high enroll ee turnover, and a small proportion of enrollees accounted for a large proportion of expenditures. All pools experienced losses, and the cur rent methods of financing losses embody undesirable incentives. Contin ued use or expansion of these pools may require broader methods of cov ering losses.