Insurance pool to offer reduced-rate coverage

In one of its first steps to carry out the new healthcare law, the Obama administration announced that it was establishing a temporary insurance pool where uninsured people with medical problems could buy coverage at reduced rates. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the program would "help provide affordable insurance for Americans who have been locked out of the insurance market." Federal health officials said the program would be available from late June of this year to Jan. 1, 2014.