S2172-2011 Actions

• Apr 17, 2012: REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE
• Jan 4, 2012: REFERRED TO AGING
• Jan 24, 2011: REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE
• Jan 18, 2011: REFERRED TO AGING

S2172-2011 Meetings

S2172-2011 Votes

S2172-2011 Memo

BILL NUMBER:S2172

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the elder law, in relation to cost of living and marriage
penalty adjustments to eligibility standards for the program for elderly
pharmaceutical insurance coverage

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL:
To eliminate the marriage penalty currently existing in the schedules
for EPIC registration fees and personal covered drug expenditures
(deductions).

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
The bill amends section 254 of the elder law (EPIC) by renumbering the
current subsections 1 and 2 for cost of living adjustments as 1(a)
and 1(b), and adding a new subsection 2. Marriage penalty adjustment,
which directs the elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage panel
(consisting of the commissioners of the departments of education
and health, the superintendent of insurance, and the directors of the
state office for the aging and the division of the budget) to adjust
registration fees as follows: first, joint income for a married couple
is defined to mean income divided by two; and second, the panel is
directed to set quarterly registration fees and deductibles for
married couples at a level that is no greater than the fees and
deductibles for individuals of comparable income.

JUSTIFICATION:
Current EPIC schedules for registration fee and deductible assume
that a married couple has greater resources than a single person, but
with the rising costs of drugs, it is no longer true--if it ever
was--that two can pay medical costs, when all other bills are
accounted for, as cheaply as one. This legislation recognizes the
important role played in the setting of fees and deductibles by the
EPIC panel, and uses that mechanism to require adjustments.

The current fee and deductible schedule produce on average, fees for
married that are 150%-200% more than fees for singles, and
deductibles that, on average and where comparable, are 160% - 165%
more than singles.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2009-2010 - S.2750 - Aging, Finance
2005-2006 - S.2971 - Aging, Finance
2007-2008 - S.118 -  Aging, Finance

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
April 1, after it becomes law.

S2172-2011 Text

 S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 
 
                                         2172
 2011-2012 Regular Sessions
 I N  SENATE
 January 18, 2011
 
 Introduced by Sens. GOLDEN, BONACIC, DeFRANCISCO, HANNON, RANZENHOFER -
 read  twice  and  ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
 the Committee on Aging
 

AN ACT to amend the elder  law,  in  relation  to  cost  of  living  and
 marriage  penalty adjustments to eligibility standards for the program
 for elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage
 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

 

Section 1.

Section 254 of the elder law is amended to read as follows:

 

S  254.  ADJUSTMENTS.  1.  Cost  of living adjustment. [1.] (A) Within
 amounts appropriated, the panel shall  adjust  the  program  eligibility
 standards  set forth in subdivision two of section two hundred forty-two
 of this title to account for increases in the cost of living.
 [2.] (B) The panel shall further adjust individual  and  joint  income
 categories set forth in subdivisions two and four of section two hundred
 forty-eight of this title to conform to the adjustments made pursuant to
 THIS subdivision [one of this section].
 2.  MARRIAGE  PENALTY  ADJUSTMENT.    THE  PANEL  SHALL FURTHER ADJUST
 INCOME, REGISTRATION FEES, DEDUCTIBLES, AND OTHER PROGRAM COMPONENTS  TO
 ELIMINATE THE EPIC MARRIAGE PENALTY, AS FOLLOWS:

 (A)  FOR PURPOSES OF SUBDIVISIONS TWO AND FOUR OF SECTIONS TWO HUNDRED
 FORTY-SEVEN AND TWO HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHT  OF  THIS  TITLE,  JOINT  INCOME
 SHALL  BE  DEFINED  AS  INCOME,  AS  SUCH TERM IS DEFINED IN SECTION TWO
 HUNDRED FORTY-ONE OF THIS TITLE AND AS ADJUSTED PURSUANT TO  SUBDIVISION
 ONE OF THIS ACTION, DIVIDED BY TWO.
 (B) THE QUARTERLY REGISTRATION FEE ESTABLISHED PURSUANT TO SECTION TWO
 HUNDRED  FORTY-SEVEN  OF  THIS  TITLE,  AND  THE LIMITS ON POINT OF SALE
 CO-PAYMENTS ESTABLISHED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION FOUR OF SUCH SECTION, AS
 SUCH ITEMS MAY BE OR HAVE BEEN ADJUSTED BY THE PANEL PURSUANT TO  SUBDI
 VISION  ONE OF THIS SECTION AND OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS CHAPTER, FOR EACH
 MARRIED INDIVIDUAL PROGRAM PARTICIPANT SHALL BE SET AT A LEVEL  THAT  IS
 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
 [ ] is old law to be omitted.
 LBD04202-01-1
 
       S. 2172                             2
 NOT  GREATER  THAN THE QUARTERLY REGISTRATION FEE AND THE LIMIT ON POINT
 OF SALE CO-PAYMENTS FOR UNMARRIED INDIVIDUAL PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS  WHOSE
 INCOME  EQUALS JOINT INCOME AS DEFINED IN PARAGRAPH (A) OF THIS SUBDIVI
 SION.
 (C)  THE  ANNUAL  PERSONAL  COVERED DRUG EXPENDITURES FOR EACH MARRIED
 INDIVIDUAL ELIGIBLE PROGRAM PARTICIPANT ESTABLISHED PURSUANT TO  SECTION
 TWO  HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHT OF THIS TITLE AS ADJUSTED BY THE PANEL PURSUANT
 TO SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION AND OTHER SECTIONS OF  THIS  CHAPTER,
 SHALL  BE  SET  BY  THE  PANEL  AT  A LEVEL WHICH IS NO GREATER THAN THE
 PERSONAL COVERED DRUG EXPENDITURES  FOR  UNMARRIED  INDIVIDUAL  ELIGIBLE
 PROGRAM  PARTICIPANTS  WHOSE INCOME, AS ADJUSTED PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION
 ONE OF THIS SECTION, EQUALS JOINT INCOME AS ADJUSTED PURSUANT  TO  PARA
 GRAPH (A) OF THIS SUBDIVISION.
 (D)  THE  LIMITS  ON POINT OF SALE CO-PAYMENTS ESTABLISHED PURSUANT TO
 SUBDIVISION FOUR OF SECTIONS TWO HUNDRED  FORTY-SEVEN  AND  TWO  HUNDRED
 FORTY-EIGHT OF THIS TITLE, AS ADJUSTED BY THE PANEL PURSUANT TO SUBDIVI
 SION  ONE  OF  THIS SECTION AND OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS CHAPTER, FOR EACH
 MARRIED INDIVIDUAL PROGRAM PARTICIPANT SHALL BE SET AT A LEVEL  THAT  IS
 NO  GREATER  THAN  THE  LIMIT ON POINT OF SALE CO-PAYMENTS FOR UNMARRIED
 INDIVIDUAL PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS WHOSE  INCOME  EQUALS  JOINT  INCOME  AS
 DEFINED IN PARAGRAPH (A) OF THIS SUBDIVISION.
 (E)  THE PANEL SHALL MAKE THE ADJUSTMENTS REQUIRED BY THIS SUBDIVISION
 ON A FOUR-YEAR SCHEDULE WHICH IT SHALL ADOPT AFTER CONSULTATION WITH THE
 DIVISION OF THE BUDGET BEGINNING WITH THE FISCAL  YEAR  NEXT  SUCCEEDING
 THE DATE ON WHICH THIS SUBDIVISION SHALL HAVE BECOME EFFECTIVE.
 

S  2. This act shall take effect on the first of April next succeeding
 the date on which it shall have become a law.

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