[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5748 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5748

   To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to permit States to 
exclude earned income in determining eligibility for medical assistance 
      for individuals with extremely high prescription drug costs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 9, 2008

 Mr. Marchant introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to permit States to 
exclude earned income in determining eligibility for medical assistance 
      for individuals with extremely high prescription drug costs.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ryan Dant Health Care Opportunity 
Act of 2008''.

SEC. 2. MEDICAID STATE OPTION TO EXCLUDE EARNED INCOME IN DETERMINING 
              ELIGIBILITY FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH EXTREMELY HIGH 
              PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS.

    Section 1915 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396n) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(k) State Option To Exclude Earned Income in Determining 
Eligibility for Individuals With Extremely High Prescription Drug 
Costs.--
            ``(1) In general.--A State may provide, through amendment 
        to its State plan under this title, that in determining the 
        eligibility for medical assistance under such plan of an 
        individual described in paragraph (2) during a year, earned 
        income of the individual (or any member of the individual's 
        household) shall be excluded but only insofar as the amount of 
        such income in the year does not exceed twice the amount 
        specified in paragraph (3).
            ``(2) Individual described.--An individual described in 
        this paragraph for a year is an individual who--
                    ``(A) is covered under health insurance or a health 
                benefits plan during the year that has prescription 
                drug coverage with a maximum lifetime limit of not less 
                than $1,000,000;
                    ``(B) has exhausted all available prescription drug 
                coverage under the plan for the year; and
                    ``(C) incurs (or is reasonably expected to incur) 
                on an annual basis during the year costs for 
                prescription drugs in excess of the amount specified in 
                paragraph (3) for the year.
            ``(3) Amount specified.--The amount specified in this 
        paragraph--
                    ``(A) for 2008 or 2009, is $250,000; or
                    ``(B) for a subsequent year, is the amount 
                specified in this subparagraph (A) (or this 
                subparagraph) for the previous year increased by the 
                annual rate of increase in the medical care component 
                of the consumer price index (U.S. city average) for the 
                12-month period ending in August of the previous year.
        Any amount computed under subparagraph (B) that is not a 
        multiple of $1,000 shall be rounded to the nearest multiple of 
        $1,000.''.
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