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History
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to aging
- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to aging
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Authorizes the panel to adopt policies to exclude certain non-recurring items from income for the program for elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage
In Assembly Committee · Ways And Means · Sponsor Jeffrey Dinowitz
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the elder law, in relation to policies excluding certain non-recurring items from income for purposes of the program for elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage
Purpose
To exclude non-recurring income from the definition of "income" for the purposes of eligibility for the EPIC program.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends subdivision 3 of section 241 of the elder law, which defines income for the EPIC program and creates an exclusion for "non-recurring items that would act to artificially inflate the availability of funds to meet current needs."
Section 2 provides for an effective date.
Justification
There are more than 300,000 seniors in New York State that rely on the EPIC program for access to low cost, high quality prescription drugs. Qualification for this program is based on income and it is fair to say that most of the enrollees are middle class, middle income people, and in some cases lower income people. What this legislation aims to do is exempt non-recurring income from the definition of income for the EPIC program. Non-recurring income can include withdrawals from a 401K or other retirement account an employer buyout or severance package, lottery or casino winnings, or inheritances. These one time influxes of money can inflate a persons household gross income and take them off the EPIC program for a year and force them to pay for drugs out of pocket until they are able to qualify again the following year.
Legislative history
New bill.
Financial implication to state and local governments
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.