By:  Sibley                                            S.B. No. 215
       73R1277 DLF-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to availability of group health insurance coverage
    1-3  following a change of employment.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 21, Insurance Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Article 21.52C to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 21.52C.  AVAILABILITY OF GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
    1-8  FOLLOWING CHANGE OF EMPLOYMENT.  (a)  In this article:
    1-9              (1)  "Group health insurance policy" means:
   1-10                    (A)  a policy or contract of group health
   1-11  insurance, including a policy or contract issued by a group
   1-12  hospital service corporation under Chapter 20 of this code; or
   1-13                    (B)  a group evidence of coverage issued by a
   1-14  health maintenance organization under the Texas Health Maintenance
   1-15  Organization Act (Chapter 20A, Vernon's Texas Insurance Code).
   1-16              (2)  "Preexisting condition provision" means a group
   1-17  health insurance policy provision that excludes benefits for
   1-18  expenses incurred during a period after the effective date of
   1-19  coverage under the policy resulting from a condition manifested
   1-20  during a period preceding the effective date of the coverage.
   1-21        (b)  An insurer may not refuse to cover an individual under a
   1-22  group health insurance policy if the group health insurance policy
   1-23  covers the employees of an employer and if:
   1-24              (1)  the individual is an employee of that employer;
    2-1              (2)  the individual applied for coverage under the
    2-2  group health insurance policy not later than the 30th day after the
    2-3  date on which the individual became an employee of that employer;
    2-4              (3)  before becoming an employee of that employer, the
    2-5  individual was covered under a group health insurance policy as an
    2-6  employee of a previous employer; and
    2-7              (4)  the individual became an employee of the current
    2-8  employer not later than the 30th day after the date coverage under
    2-9  the previous employer's group health insurance policy terminated.
   2-10        (c)  The spouse or dependent child of an individual who is
   2-11  entitled to coverage under a group health insurance policy under
   2-12  Subsection (b) of this article is entitled to coverage if the
   2-13  spouse or dependent child was covered under the previous employer's
   2-14  group health insurance policy.
   2-15        (d)  Coverage under a group health insurance policy that is
   2-16  required by Subsection (b) or (c) of this article is subject to the
   2-17  conditions, restrictions, and limitations of that policy other than
   2-18  a preexisting condition provision.
   2-19        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-20        (b)  Subsections (b) and (c), Article 21.52C, Insurance Code,
   2-21  as added by this Act, require coverage only under an insurance
   2-22  policy that is delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on or
   2-23  after January 1, 1994.  A policy that is delivered, issued for
   2-24  delivery, or renewed before January 1, 1994, is governed by the law
   2-25  as it existed immediately before the effective date of this Act,
   2-26  and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-27        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    3-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    3-2  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    3-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.