BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center S.B. 98
By: Shapleigh
Health and Human Services
AUTHOR'S/SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Currently, Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured children in the nation, but there is not a mechanism to gather consistent data on the number of uninsured children in a particular county of the state.
S.B. 98 provides for school districts to capture the insured and uninsured data of the district on a yearly basis by asking parents questions pertaining to the insurance status of their child during the annual registration and enrollment process. If the child does not have health insurance, his or her parent may request and receive information on public insurance programs from the school. School districts will be required to report the health insurance demographic of the district on an annual basis.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education in SECTION 1 (Section 38.018, Education Code) of this bill.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 38, Education Code, by adding Section 38.018, as follows:
Sec. 38.018. DETERMINATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE STATUS. (a) Defines "parent."
(b) Requires a school district to request, as part of a child's enrollment in school each year, a child's parent to voluntarily indicate on the enrollment form whether the child is covered by certain health insurance options, or if the child is not covered by health insurance.
(c) Provides that a parent is not required to provide health insurance status information as a condition of enrollment. Requires the enrollment form to clearly indicate that a parent may elect to provide or withhold the information.
(d) Requires the school district, if a parent indicates that a child is not covered by health insurance, to provide the parent with information obtained from the Health and Human Services Commission about the availability of Medicaid and the state child health plan program.
(e) Requires a school district to report health insurance status information obtained under Subsection (b) annually through the Public Education Information Management System. Requires the commissioner of education, by rule, to determine the form and type of information to be included in a report under this subsection. Provides that the rule must provide for protecting the identity of each child whose information is reported.
SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective to the 2005-2006 school year.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2005.
SUMMARY OF AMENDMENTS
Committee Amendment Number One
(1) Insert the words "clinic-based care" on line 13 of page 1 between the words "Medicaid" and "or."