ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4412
(By Delegates Michael, Leach, Doyle, Perdue and Foster)
[Passed March 11, 2004; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §5-16B-6c, relating
to directing the children's health insurance board to study
all available means to develop a plan modification to permit
participation by families with income levels between two
hundred percent and three hundred percent of the federal
poverty level; findings; premium; and report to Legislature.
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
goods 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 and
to study the long-term effect on the state budget.
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.
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