H. B. 4412
(By Delegates Michael, Leach, Doyle,
Perdue and Foster)
[Introduced February 11, 2004; referred to the
Committee on Health and Human Resources then Finance.]
A BILL to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §5-16B-6c, relating
to requiring the children's health insurance board to submit
a modification of its benefit plan that would permit
participation by families with income levels between two
hundred and three hundred percent of the federal poverty
level.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §5-16B-6c, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 16B. WEST VIRGINIA CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM.
§5-16B-6c. Modified benefit plan for children of families of low
income between two hundred and three hundred percent
of the poverty level.
The Legislature finds:
(1) That there exists a number of families of low to moderate
income without access to affordable health insurance coverage,
whose children are denied plan participation because their family
income exceeds two hundred percent of the federal poverty level;
(2) That this exclusion imposes a heavy burden on many
families by forcing them to elect whether to spend money on their
children's health care or for their food, clothing and educational
needs;
(3) That a plan should be developed and considered whereby
children in families with an income between two hundred and three
hundred percent of the federal poverty level would contribute
approximately twenty to twenty-five percent of the actual cost of
coverage resulting in no additional cost to state government; and
(4) That, while the primary goal of any plan will be the
improvement of health care for these children, a successful plan
for extending this coverage will benefit the state by improving the
economy by allowing parents of these children to spend more for
good and services and by lowering future medical expenditures,
uncompensated care and the other long term adverse economic effects
related to having a segment of the adult population which has been
deprived of adequate medical care during childhood.
The board is directed to conduct a study of all available
means to develop a viable, modified plan to enroll the children of those families having a level of income between two hundred and
three hundred percent of the federal poverty level and to consider
that such a plan should charge an affordable premium and may be
phased in over a two-year period.
The board is further directed to study total program costs
related to the implementation of a viable modified plan to expand
coverage with the design requiring no additional state dollars.
The board is directed to report its findings and
recommendations to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance at
its monthly meeting of August, two thousand four.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to direct the children's
health insurance program board to conduct a study to determine
whether a viable modified plan may be developed to extend coverage
to uninsured children of families with an income between two
hundred and three hundred percent of the federal poverty level with
no additional expense to state government.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.