By Danburg H.B. No. 3144
75R997 MWV-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the applicability of the Small Employer Health
1-3 Insurance Availability Act.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Article 26.02(21), Insurance Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (21) "Small employer" means a person that is actively
1-8 engaged in business and that, on at least 50 percent of its working
1-9 days during the preceding calendar year, employed [at least three
1-10 but] not more than 50 eligible employees, including the employees
1-11 of an affiliated employer, the majority of whom were employed in
1-12 this state.
1-13 SECTION 2. Article 26.06(a), Insurance Code, is amended to
1-14 read as follows:
1-15 (a) An individual or group health benefit plan is subject to
1-16 this chapter if it provides health care benefits covering an [three
1-17 or more] eligible employee [employees] of a small employer and if
1-18 it meets any one of the following conditions:
1-19 (1) a portion of the premium or benefits is paid by a
1-20 small employer; or
1-21 (2) the health benefit plan is treated by the employer
1-22 or by a covered individual as part of a plan or program for the
1-23 purposes of Section 106 or 162, Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26
1-24 U.S.C. Section 106 or 162).
2-1 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and
2-2 applies to a health benefit plan that is delivered, issued for
2-3 delivery, or renewed on or after January 1, 1998. A plan that is
2-4 delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed before January 1, 1998,
2-5 is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the
2-6 effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for
2-7 that purpose.
2-8 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.