Senate Bill S4158

                                BILL NUMBER:S4158

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the social services law, in relation to the determination of
eligibility for the family health plus program for self-employed
individuals

PURPOSE:
Provides that depreciation of assets of all self-employed individuals
shall not be considered income for purposes of determining
eligibility for family health plus.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
The Social Services Law is amended as follows: Section 1. Subdivision
2 of section 369-ee of the social services law is amended by adding a
new paragraph (e) to extract depreciated business assets from gross
family income for the purposes of Family Health Plus program. This
amendment will only apply if all necessary approvals under federal
law have been met.

JUSTIFICATION:
New York has made great advances in providing residents with quality
health care at an affordable price. Successful programs like Child
Health Plus and Family Health Plus have helped many families afford
health insurance and better access to needed health care. However,
              

barriers to program access arise in certain circumstances surrounding
the Family Health Plus program and depreciation of business related
assets for self-employed individuals.

Currently, when a family applies for insurance through the Family
Health Plus program, the family income must be below a certain
threshold (150 percent of the federal poverty level) for eligibility.
Many families who are self-employed seemingly meet this threshold,
yet are prevented from accessing the program, as the family income,
as stated on the program application forms, is required to include
depreciation of business assets.

One segment of the self employed population is especially hard hit by
this. Farmers, by nature of their land and equipment-intensive
business, must purchase expensive farm machinery on an ongoing basis,
and most times add the cost of such machinery to their already
considerable farm
debt load. As a result, depreciation of such machinery, including
tractors, combines and spreaders, is customary in the farm business.
While inclusion of depreciation in income calculations may provide
indications regarding the extent of farm machinery owed for necessary
farm operation, it does not help to accurately reflect actual farm
family income.

For example, a farm family of four may be living on approximately
$22,000 in actual annual farm income, and thus seemingly would be
eligible for Family Health Plus. However, when depreciation of farm
machinery is included in the family income, the same family could
appear to be making $90,000 a year and be prevented from access to
the Family Health Plus program.


As a result, steps must be taken to facilitate access to the Family
Health Plus program for families in these circumstances. This is also
evident in many self-employed individuals.

This legislation is a follow-up to Chapter 101 of the Laws of 2007
which applied only to farm families, but because the federal Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) believed that the farm-only
waiver enacted by New York State was too narrowly drafted, we have
redrafted the proposal in order to broaden the scope of the
legislation to address CMS's concerns.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2009-2010- S.280/A.1280 Reilly; Social Services
2008: S.7472/A.10800 Reilly Veto
166
Similar legislation was chaptered in 2007 (Chapter
101), but failed to receive the necessary federal waiver.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Minimal.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all
determinations made on or after such effective date.