State High Risk Pool Drug Assistance Program Act of 2003

H.R. 1291, the State High Risk Pool Drug Assistance Program Act of 2003, was designed to lower prescription drug costs for individuals who were considered "uninsurable" due to chronic or high-risk medical conditions. At the time, many of these individuals relied on state-operated high-risk insurance pools because they were denied coverage in the private market.

The bill would have allowed these state high-risk pools to qualify for the same deeply discounted drug prices that are available to other safety-net providers, such as community health centers. By granting these pools "covered entity" status under federal law, the bill aimed to make life-saving medications more affordable for patients with pre-existing conditions while requiring the pools to maintain strict records of health claims and use specific provider networks. Although the bill was introduced in 2003, it did not advance past the committee stage and never became law.