AN ACT Relating to health care for the unemployed; adding a new chapter to Title 50 RCW; making an appropriation; providing an expiration date; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This chapter shall be known as the 1985 pilot project for health care for the unemployed.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The legislature finds that prolonged unemployment has a detrimental effect upon citizens, and research findings to date have shown that unemployment has increased the rates of sickness, death, and mental illness. The legislature also finds that unemployed persons recently laid off from their jobs constitute a special class of the needy as they may not be served by the same programs as other poor persons. The legislature further finds that it is in the best interest of the people in the state of Washington to study the impact of unemployment on health status and to explore methods of providing adequate health care to unemployed persons.

Finally, the legislature finds that persons who lose their jobs may be unable to continue their health coverage and that failure to maintain health coverage may result in inadequate health care and increased long-term costs to the state.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) The department of employment security shall establish, to the extent that funds are available, at least one health care pilot project if the following conditions exist:

(a) An employer operates a plant located in Washington and ceases all or substantially all of its primary operations at the plant;

(b) The employer which ceases operations under (a) of this subsection separates from employment at least four hundred employees at the plant as a result of the cessation; and

(c) The employer continues at least three months of health coverage for the former employees and their covered dependents after the separation from employment.

The health care pilot project program under this chapter shall cover no more than six hundred former employees.

(2) If the three conditions in subsection (1) of this section are established, the department of employment security shall obtain through an insurer, health service contractor, or health care maintenance organization, health coverage with continuation of benefits equivalent to those under the employer's continuation plan to the former employees for an additional six months after the employer's continuation coverage ceases.

(3) The department of employment security may seek and obtain the expertise of personnel from such other agencies of the state as the department may deem necessary to perform its duties under this chapter. The following agencies of the state are specifically directed to cooperate with and to assist the department of employment security in carrying out the purposes of this chapter: The state insurance commissioner's office, the state employees' insurance board, the department of social and health services, the office of financial management, and the University of Washington.

(4) The department of employment security may require the former employees seeking health coverage under this section to apply and complete certifications of unemployment status.

(5) Nothing in this chapter requires the department of employment security to obtain health coverage for persons identified in this section in the following cases:

(a) The former employee obtains employment for twenty or more consecutive work days;

(b) The former employee refuses or otherwise fails to complete such certifications of unemployment status as the department of employment security may require under subsection (4) of this section; or

(c) The former employee has an employed spouse whose health coverage plan carries potential health coverage for the former employee.

(6) The department of employment security shall obtain health coverage under this chapter for the greatest possible number of eligible former employees that funding allows. If demand exceeds funds available, the department shall apply the following guidelines to establish eligibility for a pilot project: Timeliness of the former employee's application to the department, length of employment with the employer, and number of covered dependents.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The department of employment security shall study the effects of unemployment on the individual's and family's state of health. Agencies specifically designated in this chapter and such other state agencies as the department of employment security may deem necessary, shall cooperate with and assist the department of employment security. The department of employment security shall report its findings to the legislature by January 15, 1988.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. This chapter shall expire June 30, 1988.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The sum of six hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1987, from the general fund to the department of employment security for the purposes of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Sections 1 through 5 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 50 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, the support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately.