H-1594 _______________________________________________
HOUSE BILL NO. 652
_______________________________________________
State of Washington 49th Legislature 1985 Regular Session
By Representatives Wang, Smitherman, Fisher, Vekich, Thomas, Sayan and Wineberry
Read first time 2/8/85 and referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor. Referred to Committee on Ways & Means 2/27/85.
AN ACT Relating to health care for the unemployed; creating new sections; making an appropriation; and providing an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This act 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 further finds that it is in the best interest of the state of Washington to study further the impact of unemployment on health status and to explore methods of providing adequate health care to unemployed persons.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. There is hereby established a pilot project on health care for the unemployed. The purpose of this project is to study the effects of unemployment on health and to explore methods of providing adequate care to the unemployed through a state program of subsidizing health care coverage.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. (1) The department of employment security shall establish, to the extent that funds are available, health care pilot projects if the following conditions exist:
(a) The unemployment is directly the result of a closure of a business operation and such closure has directly resulted in the unemployment of at least one hundred persons;
(b) The employer has agreed to provide at least three months of coverage for the unemployed person and his or her family: PROVIDED, That the department of employment security may reduce the amount of coverage commensurate with the existing coverage of the spouse of the unemployed person; and
(c) In addition to the coverage provided by the employer, the department of employment security shall provide comparable coverage for an additional nine months after the employer's coverage ceases.
(2) Participation in this program shall be limited to unemployed persons and their families.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The department of employment security shall conduct a study that addresses the issues of health status and unemployment and shall report its findings to the legislature by January 15, 1988.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The sum of .......... 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.