BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 67

By: Lucio III

Human Services

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

In Texas, families with an income level high enough to make them ineligible for Medicaid often cannot afford to pay for the full medical care of a child with a disability. These families are often forced to take extreme measures such as taking a lower paying job in order to make them eligible for Medicaid. Under current law, Medicaid eligibility does not take into account a child's disability.  

H.B. 67 authorizes families with disabled children to participate in a Medicaid assistance buy-in program.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 67 amends the Human Resources Code to require the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission to develop and implement a Medicaid buy-in program, as authorized by the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, for certain children with developmental disabilities whose family incomes do not exceed 300 percent of the applicable federal poverty level.

H.B. 67 requires the commissioner to adopt rules in accordance with federal law that provide for eligibility requirements for the Medicaid buy-in program and requirements for participants in the program to pay premiums or cost-sharing payments.  The bill requires the rules adopted by the commissioner to include a requirement for a participant to pay monthly premiums according to a sliding scale that is based on family income, subject to the requirements of federal law.

H.B. 67 requires a state agency that is affected by a provision of the bill to request a federal waiver of authorization if the agency determines that a waiver or authorization is necessary for the implementation of the provision, and it authorizes the agency to delay implementation until that federal waiver or authorization is obtained.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2009.