SENATE BILL 245

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2005

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald P. Ortiz y Pino

AN ACT

RELATING TO MEDICAID; EXPANDING ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA; AMENDING A SECTION OF THE NMSA 1978.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. Section 27-2B-15 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1998, Chapter 8, Section 15 and Laws 1998, Chapter 9, Section 15, as amended by Laws 2001, Chapter 295, Section 8 and by Laws 2001, Chapter 326, Section 8) is amended to read:

     "27-2B-15. MEDICAID ELIGIBILITY.--

          A. The following are eligible for medicaid:

                (1) a participant who is in transition to self-sufficiency due to employment or child support;

                (2) a pregnant woman who meets the income and resource requirements for New Mexico's aid to families with dependent children as they existed on July 16, 1996;

                (3) a member of a benefit group who is eighteen years of age or younger if the benefit group's income is below one hundred eighty-five percent of the federal poverty guidelines;

                (4) a pregnant woman whose income is below one hundred eighty-five percent of the federal poverty guidelines;

                (5) participants receiving federal supplemental security income;

                (6) an aged, blind or disabled person in an institution who meets all the supplemental security income standards except for income;

                (7) a person who meets all standards for institutional care but is cared for at home and meets eligibility standards for medicaid;

                (8) a qualified medicare beneficiary, qualified disabled working person or specified low-income medicare beneficiary; and

                (9) a foster child in the custody of the state or of an Indian pueblo, tribe or nation who meets eligibility standards for medicare.

          B. Effective October 1, 2001, for the medicaid

category designated "JUL medicaid" by the department, the

income eligibility criteria shall be the same as the income

eligibility criteria set forth in the New Mexico Works Act.

          C. A child newborn to twenty-four months of age who qualifies as an eligible member of a benefit group pursuant to Paragraph (3) of Subsection A of this section shall have continuous eligibility and shall not require recertification during that time."

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