Senate president stalls effort to restore KidsCare health insurance program

• Arizona bill that would restore health insurance for children in low-income families appears dead
• The bill passed the Arizona House of Representatives last week but has not moved in the Senate
• Senate President Andy Biggs said he does not support KidsCare program and has not assigned it to committee

A bill that would restore health insurance coverage to children in low-income families appears dead in the Arizona Senate just a week after passing out of the House.

House Bill 2309 would allow Arizona to access federal funding to restore the KidsCare program, Arizona’s version of the Children’s Health Insurance Program cut in 2010.

State estimates show 30,000 or more children could gain health insurance if the Legislature restores KidsCare.

Bills must get a committee hearing by next week to continue advancing through the Legislature. Arizona Senate President Andy Biggs has not assigned the bill to a committee, however, and it appears he has no plans to do so before the bill-hearing deadline.

“I don’t support KidsCare,” said Biggs, R-Gilbert.

Biggs' refusal to assign the bill to a Senate committee left supporters scrambling to find another path to restore the program. Advocates say that Arizona should act now because Congress has authorized 100 percent federal funding through 2017 and likely would pay the entire tab through 2019.

Gov. Doug Ducey has been non-committal about the legislation.

Dana Wolfe Naimark,president and CEO of Children's Action Alliance, said she believes some senators support the bill, but she conceded they might not get a chance to vote on the legislation.

"There is very strong support in the Senate," Naimark said. "We are talking to senators. There is a possibility this can change. The other avenue is through budget negotiations."

Arizona froze KidsCare enrollment in 2010 amid budget cuts following the Great Recession. The state created a temporary program, KidsCare II, that enrolled thousands of children in 2013. Kids were sent to the federal Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplace or Medicaid expansion in 2014.

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Eligible families that earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level have been able to get health insurance coverage through the state's Medicaid program, known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. But families that earned between 138 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level were sent to the federal marketplace, and advocates say many working-poor families can't afford those plans, even with subsidies, because of cost-sharing requirements such as co-pays and deductibles.

A legacy version of KidsCare covers 711 children who enrolled in the program before the 2010 state budget cuts, but those children will be removed from the program when their families are no longer eligible or when they become adults.

Supporters point out that Arizona is the only state in the nation that does not have an active version of the Children's Health Insurance Program. Research by Georgetown University shows only Alaska and Texas have a higher rate of uninsured kids than Arizona, which also has the  highest rate of uninsured children among families that earn between 138 to 200 percent of federal poverty level.

But fiscal conservatives worry that federal funding could be reduced after 2017, forcing the state to cut coverage or find state funds to cover the amount that the federal government would not cover.

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Arizona Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, agreed to release the bill from the House Appropriations Committee, which he chairs, because the bill did not have a fiscal impact and had safeguards in place in the event of a cut in federal funds. Last week, the House sent the bill to the Senate on a 47-12 vote.

The House version included an amendment requiring the AHCCCS director to notify the governor and legislative leaders if funding falls short of program costs. The bill would also require the AHCCCS director to halt enrollment and provide a 30-day termination notice to enrollees and contractors if the federal government halted funding.

"I certainly wanted to make sure the bill had safeguards that did not put that state on the hook for additional costs if the program goes away at the federal level," Olson said.

Biggs — one of 25 Arizona senators who get state-sponsored health insurance — has told several people at the Capitol that he has no plans to allow the bill to move through the Senate.

Arizona Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, who introduced HB 2309, said she believes opposition to the bill stems from a bruising legislative fight to restore and expand Medicaid.

"A lot of times they look at KidsCare as part of the Medicaid expansion," Cobb said.. "It is a little bit of political posturing for them, and that's what they're going to do."

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Republic reporter Alia Beard Rau contributed to this report.