MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The House Ways and Means General Fund Committee passed a bill Wednesday that would establish stronger enforcement mechanisms to coerce a parent, if feasible, to enroll their child in employer-provided health insurance over Medicaid.
“What my bill is going to do is, if you are a parent that has employer-provided insurance, you need to put your child on your insurance and not have them in Medicaid,” said Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, the sponsor of the bill.
The bill would allow for a judge that has authority of a parent, such as in proceedings over domestic relations or custody, to order that a child be enrolled in private insurance, if available. That new authority established under the bill, Robbins explained, would allow for a parent to be found in contempt of court were they to not comply with a judge’s order.
The bill would also expand the ability of the Alabama Medicaid Agency to sue a parent to recover medical costs in instances where a child could have been enrolled in a private health insurance plan.
Robin Hyden, executive director of the low-income Alabamian advocacy group Alabama Arise, spoke out against the bill in committee, citing that it could negatively impact the roughly 700,000 Alabama children currently enrolled in Medicaid. Hyden explained that she had sent copies of Robbins’ bills to “five different national experts who work on health law Medicaid policy,” and that all had different interpretations as to how the bill may impact children currently enrolled in Medicaid.
“I think the worst-case scenario reading of this bill is that it would not just impact child support, it would impact all parents, which I know the sponsor said is not the intent of this bill,” Hyden said.
Robbins insisted that his bill would “never put a child in a situation where they’re not covered,” and the committee ultimately voted to give the bill a favorable report, minus two dissenting votes.