Campopiano / 1 Senator Hokanson

S.W.___

A BILL
To raise the maximum income qualifying a family of four or more for Medicaid coverage from 29,700 dollars to
35,000 dollars, and to provide Medicaid for families less than four or for individuals if their income is less than
18,000 dollars a year.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Medicaid Eligibility Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Up to 30 percent of health care costs could be saved without compromising health outcomes
2) The United States is one of only two countries in the world that does not provide health care for all of its citizens.
3) It is estimated that it would cost 77 billion dollars per year to provide healthcare to all of America's uninsured.
4) The Affordable Care Act of 2010, creates a national Medicaid minimum eligibility level of 133 percent of the
federal poverty level, 29,700 dollars for a family of four in 2011, for nearly all Americans under age 65.
5) There is currently no federal requirement that states provide health coverage to adults without dependent
children.
6) Only in some states Medicaid covers all adults below a certain income level.
7) Currently under the Affordable Care Act only the poorest Americans are covered by Medicaid.
8) Almost every state has different requirements to qualify for Medicaid.
9) Patients who are covered by Medicaid often receive lesser quality of care than patients who have private insurance.
10) Often times citizens must have specific diseases or health issues to qualify to receive Medicaid coverage.
11) Assets aside from income that cannot be used to purchase health care with are often used to disqualify citizens
with low income from qualifying for Medicaid.
12) Receiving care for special disabilities is often very difficult under current Medicaid coverage.
13) Medicaid applications can be sent in regardless of the time of the year allowing new applicants to be accepted
often.
14) Citizens who do not have health insurance must pay a fine of 325 dollars or two percent of their annual income,
whichever is higher.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Medicaid Eligibility Act shall make families of four or larger eligible to receive Medicaid coverage if their
income is less than 50,000 dollars a year. Families of three or less and individual adults shall receive Medicaid
coverage if their income is less than 1,500 dollars a month. Citizens do not have to have any prior medical issues to be
eligible for care, nor are they ineligible if they have had prior health issues.
B) Funding for the new families and individuals shall be taken from military spending. Military spending shall be cut
from 598.49 billion dollars a year to 583.49 billion dollars a year. The fifteen billion dollars cut from military
spending shall be allocated to pay for the new citizens eligible for Medicaid. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
shall handle all new eligibility requests. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid shall have the right to deny or accept
citizens Medicaid coverage if their income is 2,000 dollars above or below the 50,000 dollar a year eligibility. Any
family of three making less than 1,500 dollars a month shall receive Medicaid.
C) This bill shall go into effect on the first of May, 2016. Every four years the 50,000 dollars a year eligibility line and
the 1,5000 dollars a month eligibility line shall be adjusted automatically to account for inflation. Inflation shall be
accounted for based on the value of the United States Dollar every fourth year. For example, If the United States
dollar is worth 5% less than it was four years prior then the 35,000 dollars shall be raised to 36,750 dollars. Cuts from
the military budget to fund the new eligible citizens shall also be adjusted to account for inflation. No new taxes shall
be created to fund the Medicaid Eligibility act of 2015 due to its inexpensive nature. New taxes would be unnecessary
to pay for the medical coverage of new Medicaid applicants.