KY Republicans unveil bill to help people move from public assistance to paying jobs
House Bill 1, filed by House Speaker Pro Tempore
"I think the goal goes way beyond savings to the Medicaid programs, to the public assistance programs," Osborne said. "The real savings is getting people back in the work force and making them productive tax payers again and get involved with the public assistance rolls as quickly as possible."
An analysis of how much the bill might cost has not yet been prepared.
House Minority Leader
At the core of the bill is a provision that would allow the state to use money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to pay private health insurance costs for people who make below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, which for a family of four, was
The program, which is called "bridge insurance" because it attempts to bridge the transition from Medicaid to private insurance, would be indefinite for people who make below 138 percent of the federal poverty level (
Meade said he is not aware of any other state who has a similar program, but said it was the top concern that came up in the Public Assistance Reform work group last year.
"No one should have to make that choice of whether they're going to provide insurance and security for their families or go out and make more money," Meade said.
The bill also carves out a scenario in which people receiving Medicaid under expanded eligibility requirements allowed by the federal Affordable Care Act would have work requirements -- a goal of former Gov.
Currently, only 10.7 percent of the money the state spends on Medicaid goes to the expanded Medicaid population, according to a report by the
Meade said the bill would also limit the people who are exempt from work requirements on SNAP to just the primary caregiver of a child.
To combat fraud, the bill allows the state to participate in a federal program called the National Accuracy Clearinghouse, which pools data between states to prevent "double dipping," or people getting public assistance in more than one state.
The bill also would move all public assistance benefits onto one card and codifies federal restrictions against using public assistance money to buy alcohol and tobacco or to spend the money at casinos and strip-clubs. People would not be able to use more than 25 percent of their SNAP benefits on energy drinks or soft drinks. People with the public assistance card would not be allowed to use it to take money out at an ATM and would risk losing all of their public assistance benefits if they were caught selling their card.
Instead of requiring drug testing before receive public assistance, as
Much of the bill, Meade said, is an attempt to "deter fraud." Experts who testified in front of the Public Assistance Reform task force said the rate of fraud is only about two percent, but Meade is skeptical.
"Folks don't commit fraud anticipating on getting caught," Meade said. "So to say that we only have a two percent fraud rate, in my opinion, that's probably pretty ridiculous."
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