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1999 SESSION

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HJ 659 Children's health insurance.

Introduced by: Ward L. Armstrong | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Children’s health insurance. Expresses the sense of the General Assembly concerning Virginia’s implementation of the children’s health insurance program. The resolution notes that states were authorized to implement this program as (i) an expansion of Medicaid, (ii) an insurance program with copayments and premiums for children who are not eligible for Medicaid and which covers the same or similar services as the relevant state employees’ benefit plan, or (iii) a combination thereof. In Virginia, considerable controversy has surrounded this program’s policy. A plan has been approved by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services which provides for a straight insurance plan. Under federal law, insurance programs—even those with benefits comparable to state Medicaid programs—are not available to state and local government employees—a circumstance that confuses and dismays low-income government employees. This resolution expresses the opinion of the General Assembly that Virginia’s program for children’s health insurance should be implemented in such way as to provide eligibility for the Commonwealth’s low-income employees and other low-income government employees with children, that no state or local government employee should be a second-class citizen in this Commonwealth, and that every child of a low-income state or local employee should have the same opportunity as children in other low-income families to receive adequate and necessary health care.


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