Wednesday, May 7, 2003 | 9:47 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee voted Tuesday to raise the premiums low-income families pay for state-subsidized health insurance coverage for their children.
The subcommittee, working on the $1.3 billion state human resources budget, also agreed to provide money to start suicide prevention programs and to support more funds to subsidize taxicab rides for senior citizens in Clark County.
It approved, a $73 million appropriation for the coming two years for Nevada Check-Up, which provides children of working poor families health insurance. Of that $53 million comes from the federal government.
Eligible families pay an average $36 annually for the insurance. The subcommittee agreed to boost the quarterly premium by anywhere from $5 to $20, depending on the family income.
A family of three that earns less than $22,000 a year pays $10 a quarter for coverage of all their children. That would rise to $15 per quarter.
About 65 percent of the families who have children in the program are at that income level.
Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, said he did not think the increase would hurt on enrollment. Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who is chairwoman of the subcommittee, called it a minimal increase.
About 2,300 children were removed from the program in March when their parents did not pay the premiums. Another 700 were removed because they were not eligible.
Legislative fiscal analysts told the subcommittee they expected those children to return to the program when the families who were delinquent make the payments.
The growth of the program has slowed in the last few years. The subcommittee provided enough money for a 1 percent per month rise in enrollment to reach 31,023 children in 2005.
The children in the program receive health care through HMOs in Clark and Washoe counties and from private physicians in rural Nevada.
The subcommittee agreed to allocate $315,000 over the next two years to begin a suicide prevention program in Nevada. The money would pay to to train law enforcement and other officials and to carry out an educational program.
The state coordinator of the program would be required to hire a trainer in Clark County to carry out the educational and other programs in Southern Nevada. The money is to fund Senate Bill 49 that establishes the program.
The subcommittee, at the urging of Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Minden, included another $108,000 in the budget to finance a suicide prevention program in Douglas County.
The programs would be financed from extra money expected from the federal government.
The subcommittee also voted to give the Senior Ride program in Clark County an extra $100,000 a year. It approved a $577,666 budget for next fiscal year and $574,424 for the 2005 fiscal year.
The added money will come from Senate Bill 288, which raises the surcharge from 15 cents to 20 cents on each taxi fare in Southern Nevada. The state Division of Aging distributes coupon books to those seniors who qualify.
The subcommittee also supported the recommendation of Gov. Kenny Guinn to expand the ombudsman program in the aging division by five new positions.
The added staff would reduce the caseload carried by the present ombudsman workers. The division said its current staff was able to visit only 21 of the 42 skilled nursing homes last fiscal year. And it was able to visit only 23 of the 349 group residential facilities.
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