With enrollment lagging in new health care programs for people with pre-existing conditions, a nonprofit advocacy group is recommending that the waiting period for high risk pools be shortened or eliminated.

Health care reform requires that a Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan be implemented in each state. The federal government has granted $5 billion in subsidies to help people with health problems access affordable insurance. Patients need to have been uninsured for six months in order to enroll in the plans.

But a year after health reform passed, these programs are highly underutilized. According to Associated Press writer David E. Lieb, "When Missouri began taking applications in July 2010 for its federally mandated Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan, officials expected to cover about 3,000 people…One year later, it has just one-sixth of that amount — about 500 enrollees."