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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Beffort

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/31/08

HB

SHORT TITLE Post-Secondary Student Health Care

SB 503

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$35.0 Non-Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to SB 37, SB 38, SB 40

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Department of Health (DOH)

New Mexico Health Policy Commission (HPC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 503 appropriates $35.0 from the general fund for expenditure in Fiscal Years 2008

and 2009 to the Higher Education Department to study post-secondary student health care and

factors incident to providing that health care, including determining:

(1) the number of students with and without health care coverage;

(2) the sources of health care coverage for students who have health care coverage;

(3) the cost of coverage for all of the students and the cost of coverage for those not

currently covered;

(4) the current role of student health care services and what expanded services can be

offered through student health care programs;

(5) the cost of expanding student health care services;

(6) the effect that mandatory assessment of health care coverage fees would have on

student enrollment or attendance; and

(7)

possible funding mechanisms for coverage for student health care, such as

institutional scholarship funding, funding from the College Affordability Act or

funding from other state resources.

Senate Bill 503 – Page

2

Senate Bill 503 requires that the higher education department shall report to the legislative

finance committee, the legislative education study committee and any other appropriate interim

committees on the study findings by October 30, 2008.

Senate Bill 503 contains an emergency clause taking effect immediately.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $35.0 contained in this bill is a non-recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009 shall revert

to the general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The HED states that NMHED and New Mexico’s public postsecondary institutions would need

to collect data for the metrics requested in SB503. While the legislation requests for the act to

take effect immediately and for NMHED to report the study findings by October 30, 2008, it is

unlikely that the necessary data could be collected until the 2008-2009 academic year, for

student health care data that is not currently captured at the institution level.

The HPC notes that In November of 2005, the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) published

the Insurance Options for College Students in Texas: A Study of Student Health Insurance Plans,

and found that college students are disproportionately at risk of lacking insurance coverage when

compared to the population in general.

According to the DOH, The New Mexico Medicaid program provides coverage for eligible

youth up the age of 18. Medicaid furnishes extended coverage to recipients over 18 year of age

but under 21 years of age who are receiving Chafee independent living assistance. A nationwide

study funded by the Heinz Family Philanthropies and the Chickering Group in 2002 found that

30% of college students don't have any type of health insurance, requiring more than 4 million

students to pay for their health care needs out-of-pocket. The same study also discovered that

those students without health insurance were also less likely to finish college than those who had

insurance coverage, with many of these students having to drop out of school and work to pay

off their medical bills. A simple illness that could quickly and easily be treated with antibiotics

may cause an uninsured student on a limited budget to miss several days of classes and fall

behind in schoolwork, simply because he or she could not afford to visit the doctor.

RELATIONSHIP

Senate Bill 503 relates to:

SB37: Require College Student Health Insurance

SB38: Non-resident College Student Health Insurance

SB40: Health Insurance in College Scholarships

GH/mt