NEWS RELEASE
THOMAS SUEHS
Executive Commissioner
Date: September 14, 2009
Contact: Stephanie Goodman, (512) 424-6951
HHSC Gets Grant to Help Employees Pay for Health Coverage
AUSTIN – The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) has received a $50 million grant to provide cost sharing accounts to help low-income working Texans purchase health insurance.
“What’s great about this project is that it really stretches limited taxpayer dollars to insure more Texans,” said Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs. “The employer still covers most of the insurance cost, and the state will provide extra help to employees who may not be able to afford their portion of the premiums or the co-pays for the coverage.”
The grant through the federal Health Resources and Services Administration covers five years at up $10 million a year, and the state will contribute a 20 percent match. HHSC will use the funding to create cost savings accounts for Texans earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $66,000 for a family of four.
Starting in 2010, the cost sharing accounts will be available to eligible employees receiving coverage though one of three new initiatives:
- Healthy Texas is a new statewide initiative that helps small businesses offer affordable health insurance to employees. It lowers premiums by using a state-funded pool to help cover employees with high health care costs. It will begin enrollment in the summer of 2010.
- TexHealth Coalition provides affordable health coverage to small businesses in Galveston and Central Texas. It will expand to Houston, Dallas, El Paso and the Brazos Valley within a year.
- Community First Health Plan will begin offering a new coverage for small employers in Bexar County and seven surrounding counties in January.
The cost sharing accounts will help low-income employees pay for insurance premiums or co-pays and deductibles. The account is managed by the health plan, and the employee directs how the funding is used to best meet their health care needs.
Funding in the first year of the grant also will help pay for outreach, marketing and related costs to launch the new Healthy Texas initiative.
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