REPORT TITLE:
CHIP; Emer. Approp. FY2000-01


DESCRIPTION:
Makes emergency appropriation for the Children's Health Insurance
Program for FY 2000-2001.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        1920
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION FOR THE CHILDREN'S HEALTH
   INSURANCE PROGRAM.



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

 1      SECTION 1.  This Act is recommended by the governor for
 
 2 immediate passage in accordance with section 9 of article VII of
 
 3 the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.
 
 4      SECTION 2.  The legislature finds that the federal
 
 5 children's health insurance program provides Hawaii with an
 
 6 important opportunity to expand health care coverage to low-
 
 7 income children who are uninsured.  The children's health
 
 8 insurance program is considered the largest expansion of health
 
 9 care coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid.
 
10      In January 1998, the department of human services and the
 
11 department of health convened a CHIP planning committee to
 
12 develop and submit Hawaii's children's health insurance program
 
13 proposal prior to the federal submittal deadline of June 30,
 
14 1999.  The proposal was completed and submitted to the federal
 
15 Health Care Financing Administration of the Department of Health
 
16 and Human Services on October 19, 1998.
 
17      The children's health insurance program planning committee
 
18 developed a proposal to expand Hawaii's Medicaid and QUEST
 
19 programs, and that proposal was submitted as a placekeeper plan
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 to lock in federal funding for federal fiscal years 1998 through
 
 2 2000.
 
 3      Hawaii was allotted $9,900,000 for the children's health
 
 4 insurance program for federal fiscal years 1998 through 2000 with
 
 5 a further commitment to fund the program through federal fiscal
 
 6 year 2008.  This federal allotment requires an enhanced federal
 
 7 matching rate of sixty-five per cent for the State.
 
 8      Although the children's health insurance program is
 
 9 extremely worthy of funding, continued constraints on state
 
10 revenues preclude the inclusion of this funding in the governor's
 
11 executive budget for biennium fiscal years 2000 and 2001.
 
12      The purpose of this Act is to appropriate moneys for the
 
13 children's health insurance program in order not to lose the
 
14 federal funds allotment for the State's fiscal year 2000-2001.
 
15      SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
16 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1 or so much thereof
 
17 as may be necessary for fiscal year 2000-2001 to fund the State's
 
18 sixty-five per cent share of the federal allotment for the
 
19 children's health insurance program.
 
20      SECTION 4.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the
 
21 department of human services for the purposes of this Act.
 
22      SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
 
23 
 
24                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________