children's health insurance;
requirements; study
SB 1074 removes the eligibility requirement for children that have voluntarily dropped insurance to wait six months to become eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).
The
Appropriations Committee adopted a strike-everything amendment. The strike everything amendment:
The Children’s Health Insurance Program was created in 1997 to provide health insurance coverage for uninsured low-income children under the age of nineteen. Primary funding for CHIP is provided through a federal grant and state-matching tobacco tax monies. As of March 1, 2001, 103,618 children have been approved for health coverage through CHIP (47,015 for KidsCare and 56,603 for Medicaid.)
The proposed strike-everything amendment
to SB 1074 provides for the following:
· Allows school districts to perform outreach for the CHIP program administered through AHCCCS. The outreach activities shall not reduce or interfere with classroom instruction time and stipulates that outreach activities not be performed by teachers or in classrooms during regularly scheduled classroom hours.
· Requires AHCCCS to adopt rules to allow them to waive part of or the entire premium if a child is chronically ill.
· Changes the requirement that children have not voluntarily dropped insurance coverage from six months to three months as a provision for eligibility into CHIP.
· Expands services to include multiple eye examinations and prescriptive lenses as needed. The program currently only provides one eye examination and one set of prescriptive lenses each year.
· Adds medically necessary non-emergency transportation to the list of covered services. Only medically necessary emergency transportation is covered under the current program.
· Allows for forty-five days during a year for outpatient behavioral health services. The program currently provides coverage for 30 outpatient visits per year.
· Requires Arizona Legislative Council to report semiannually to the Governor and Legislature on the performance, enrollment data and expenditures of the CHIP program.
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45th Legislature
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First Regular Session 3 April
18, 2001
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