LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD Austin, Texas FISCAL NOTE, 77th Regular Session March 18, 2001 TO: Honorable Elliott Naishtat, Chair, House Committee on Human Services FROM: John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board IN RE: HB2660 by Christian (Relating to a requirement that recipients of public assistance enroll dependent children in a public health care program.), As Introduced ************************************************************************** * No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. * ************************************************************************** The bill would require the Health and Human Service Commission to adopt rules requiring a person receiving public assistance under a program administered by the commission or a health and human services agency, as a condition of receiving that assistance, to enroll each of the person's dependent children in any public health care program for which the child is eligible. Further, the commission or appropriate health and human services agency must identify any public health program in which a person is required to enroll a child and assist the person with the enrollment process. "Public assistance" is not defined. Under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance program, the Department of Human Services (DHS) currently automatically enrolls children eligible for TANF in the Medicaid program. In this instance, the bill would require continuation of current policy and therefore have no fiscal impact. DHS indicates that federal law does not allow the state to impose additional eligibility requirements for Food Stamps. Therefore, no impact is assumed related to this recipient population. If public assistance is meant to include other state programs, or programs jointly administered by the State and the federal government, there would be potentially significant cost implications for Medicaid and or the Children's Health Insurance Program, which are each partially funded with General Revenue. Local Government Impact No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated. Source Agencies: 320 Texas Workforce Commission, 529 Health and Human Services Commission, 324 Texas Department of Human Services, 501 Texas Department of Health LBB Staff: JK, HD, PP