Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

U.S. SENATOR Jeff Bingaman

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Contact Senator Bingaman's Office:

Jude McCartin
Maria Najera
703 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5521

Bingaman Works to Improve Method for Determining Health Care Eligibility

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman has joined in introducing legislation aimed at improving the way Americans are deemed eligible for health care coverage under the new health insurance reform law.

Under that new law, known as the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans will finally gain access to health care coverage.  Depending on their income level, some Americans will qualify for tax credits to help cover the cost of private health insurance premiums, while others will qualify for Medicaid for the first time.

Medicaid is a government initiative that provides health benefits to the lowest-income Americans.  Currently, only certain types of low-income Americans may qualify for coverage -- for example, children, pregnant women, and the elderly. Under the new health reform law, all low-income Americans will have access to Medicaid.

For the purpose of determining whether an individual qualifies for Medicaid or for the new tax credit, the law as it is currently written does not require Social Security Insurance benefits to be counted as income.  That position is consistent with determining Americans' eligibility for some other low-income tax credits.  But that method of determining eligibility may allow a small number of middle class Americans to get the same benefits as those with significantly lower incomes.

Bingaman believes that the greatest federal assistance should be reserved for those who truly cannot afford health insurance premiums therefore for the purpose of determining whether an individual qualifies for Medicaid or health insurance subsidies, Bingaman wants SSI to be counted as income.   To that end, Bingaman has cosponsored legislation written by Senator Ben Nelson that would require SSI to be counted in the definition of income.  Preliminary estimates indicate that bill would save up $13 billion over ten years, savings which the legislation requires be used to reduce the deficit.

"When writing this law, we relied on an existing practice in determining eligibility for tax credits.  It turns out, that practice does not work best in this situation.  It makes sense to fix this problem, and to apply the savings to reducing our deficit," Bingaman said.

The bill has been sent to the Senate Finance Committee.  Bingaman serves on that panel and helped negotiate the new health insurance law, which will greatly reduce New Mexico's very high uninsured rate.