Only 8,000 people have signed up for new high-risk pools

A key part of the new health care law that provides special insurance pools for high-risk customers is not attracting enough clients due to high premiums and other problems, The Washington Post reports.

State directors of the high-risk pools say they may just be experiencing growing pains as Americans are only now learning the insurance is available. But expensive premiums and fears the health-care law may be reversed are also scaring customers away.

The stakes of the program's success or failure are high, as the Post's Amy Goldstein explains:

<p style="padding: 0 20px 1em; font-style: italic;">The Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, the program's official name, is an early test of President Obama's argument that people will embrace the politically divisive health-care overhaul once they see its advantages firsthand. According to some health-policy researchers, the success or failure of the pools also could foreshadow the complexities of making broader changes in health insurance by 2014, when states are to open new marketplaces - or exchanges - for Americans to buy coverage individually or in small groups.</p>

Only 8,000 people have signed up for the pools in 27 states as of last month. The story will most likely be a blow to the Obama administration, which is trying to fend off legal challenges and threats from GOP lawmakers to defund the law, which will extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.