For most of us, the benefits of health care reform are years away, but for those in dire circumstances, help is due sooner.

Within 90 days, a high-risk insurance pool must be established for people who can’t get health insurance because of health problems. The details remain to be worked out, but the goal is to make sure health services are available to those who need them.

Thirty-five states, Maine not among them, already have high-risk pools. Some states sharply limit eligibility and premiums are often high. The most successful ones provide affordable policies to people with chronic health care problems. Minnesota’s plan extends eligibility to anyone who has been turned down for coverage because of a medical problem.

Once the pool is established, it may reduce the financial pressure on insurance companies that serve the individual market. In Maine, Anthem is seeking a 23-percent rate hike for individual policies because of the rising proportion of policy holders with health problems. We hope the federal high-risk pool emerges as a good alternative for such customers ”“ and lowers costs for others in the market for individual policies.

The plan for a national pool has received bipartisan support. But establishing a system within 90 days is expected to be a challenge. The federal Department of Health and Human Services reportedly expects to base its system on successful state plans.

The pool to be established under the health care reform law will charge premiums similar to those paid by healthy policyholders, according to a summary in The Wall Street Journal. The plan must cover at least 65 percent of participants’ care, on average, and will cap out-of-pocket costs for an individual at $5,950 per year.

The law provides $5 billion to help fund the new program and six months for DHHS to get it up and running. With as many as two million people potentially eligible for the pool, we hope the timing and funding  are sufficient.

Although this will only  be a  temporary solution, it will provide an important test of the planning and analysis that went into health care reform. Success will do more than provide coverage to those who badly need it. If the program works well, it may begin to justify the faith of those who believe that government can devise more effective ways of delivering health care.

— Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Nick Cowenhoven at nickc@journaltribune.com.