By Maxey H.B. No. 653
75R2967 SAW-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the exemption of insurance coverage self-funded by the
1-3 state from certain insurance laws.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 5(f), Texas Employees Uniform Group
1-6 Insurance Benefits Act (Article 3.50-2, Vernon's Texas Insurance
1-7 Code), is amended to read as follows:
1-8 (f) The trustee, in its sole discretion and in accordance
1-9 with the requirements of this section, shall determine those plans
1-10 of coverages for which the trustee does not intend to purchase
1-11 insurance and which it intends to provide directly from the
1-12 Employees Life, Accident, and Health Insurance and Benefits Fund.
1-13 [Any plan of coverages for which the trustee does not purchase
1-14 insurance but provides under this Act on a self-funded basis is
1-15 exempt from any other insurance law unless the law expressly
1-16 applies to this plan or this Act.] The trustee shall make an
1-17 estimate of the unrestricted balance of the fund. Unless such
1-18 estimated unrestricted balance is equal to at least 10 percent of
1-19 the total benefits expected to be provided directly from the fund
1-20 as a result of claims incurred during the fiscal year, the trustee
1-21 shall include in the contributions required the amount necessary to
1-22 establish an unrestricted balance in the fund of not less than 10
1-23 percent. The unrestricted balance shall be placed in a contingency
1-24 reserve fund to provide for adverse fluctuations in future charges,
2-1 claims, costs, or expenses of the program.
2-2 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and
2-3 applies only to a plan of coverage that is delivered, issued for
2-4 delivery, or renewed on or after September 1, 1997. A plan that is
2-5 delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed before September 1,
2-6 1997, is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the
2-7 effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for
2-8 that purpose.
2-9 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-10 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.