Brief ⁽¹⁾

SB 441 amends one section of the Kansas Uninsurable Health Insurance Plan Act by striking the sunset language from the law. Additionally, the bill amends the law pertaining to small group health insurance by deleting reference to a board which was abolished earlier by the Legislature.

Background

The bill was requested by the Insurance Commissioner whose representative explained that the Kennedy/Kassebaum legislation enacted in Kansas in 1997, used the Kansas Uninsurable Health Insurance Plan Act as the source of insurance coverage for individuals who had previous group coverage, but for whatever reason were without access to such coverage, and had exhausted continuing benefits under the federal COBRA requirements. At that time, the Legislature placed a sunset date of January 1, 2001, on the use of the high risk pool for individual coverage. The bill removes the sunset and makes the changes permanent law.

Deletions of the provisions that refer to a board reflect the fact that the board referenced no longer exists.

There was no opposition to the bill.

The fiscal impact statement from the Division of the Budget indicates there is no fiscal effect from passage of the bill.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html