Report Title:

QUEST; Pregnant Legal Immigrants

Description:

Provides QUEST medical insurance for income-qualified pregnant immigrants. Appropriates $      for FY 2003-2004 and $       for FY 2004-2005.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

245

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to human services.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that with the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Congress stripped away medical assistance and other benefits from income-qualified legal immigrants. However, a citizen's right to these benefits was untouched. Scholars, courts, and attorneys general have declared these discriminatory provisions illegal. Hawaii has rectified this situation in part by restoring eligibility to QUEST coverage for income-qualified legal immigrant children under the age of nineteen.

The legislature further finds that it is prudent to also cover pregnant legal immigrants whose incomes qualify them for QUEST coverage. Timely and regular prenatal care greatly enhances the probability of uncomplicated healthy births. Emergency medicaid coverage is available for low-income uninsured legal immigrant women for delivery services. Infants born to these women will also be eligible for medicaid or QUEST. Thus, it is both humane and cost-effective to provide QUEST coverage for legal immigrant women and give them access to prenatal care.

The purpose of this Act is to restore eligibility for QUEST benefits to income-eligible pregnant women who are legal immigrants and who have lived in the United States less than five years. Only state funds shall be used for enrollment and benefit costs.

SECTION 2. Chapter 346, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§346-    Medical assistance to legal immigrants and migrants. The department shall provide state-funded medical assistance during the course of pregnancy and for up to three months post-partum for:

(1) Legal permanent residents who arrived in the United States after August 22, 1996 and who have lived in the United States less than five years;

(2) Persons who are permanently residing in the United States under color of law; and

(3) Nonimmigrants from the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands who are citizens of:

(A) The Marshall Islands;

(B) The Federated States of Micronesia; or

(C) Palau, as defined by the Compact of Free Association Act of 1985, P.L. 99-239, or the Compact of Free Association between the United States and the Government of Palau, P.L. 99-658;

who are otherwise eligible for benefits under the State's medicaid programs, including QUEST, but are ineligible due to restricted eligibility rules imposed by Title XXI of the Social Security Act in the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997 or the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996."

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $          , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2003-2004, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005, to provide state-funded medical assistance during the course of pregnancy and for three months afterwards for:

(1) Legal permanent residents who arrived in the United States after August 22, 1996, and who have lived in the United States less than five years;

(2) Persons who are permanently residing in the United States under color of law; or

(3) Nonimmigrants from the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands who are citizens of:

(A) The Marshall Islands;

(B) The Federated States of Micronesia; or

(C) Palau, as defined by the Compact of Free Association Act of 1985, P.L. 99-239, or the Compact of Free Association between the United States and the Government of Palau, P.L. 99-658;

who are otherwise eligible for benefits under the State's medicaid programs, including QUEST, but are ineligible due to restricted eligibility rules imposed by Title XXI of the Social Security Act in the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997 or the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996.

SECTION 4. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect July 1, 2003.

INTRODUCED BY:

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