Family Opportunity Act Unlikely to be Included in Senate Budget

Although the budget resolution approved by the House on March 28 "assumes passage" of the "Family Opportunity Act," which would allow lower-income parents to purchase Medicaid coverage for disabled children, the Senate FY 2002 budget resolution likely will not include a "comparable provision," CongressDaily reports. "If it isn't in the president's budget, I don't think it's in," Senate Budget Committee Chair Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) said, adding, "Someone will have to amend" the budget to include the Family Opportunity Act. Dominici said that he plans to talk to Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), one of the bill's chief sponsors, about the issue (Rovner, CongressDaily, 3/29). The Family Opportunity Act would allow parents earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level, about $51,150 for a family of four, to purchase Medicaid coverage for disabled children up to age 18. In addition, the bill would provide states with "greater flexibility" to offer health services to disabled children at home and would establish "family-to-family information centers" in each state to help parents with disabled children (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/9). Although the measure has 66 Senate co-sponsors, the bill has "had a difficult time getting through the Senate" because it lacks backing from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles (R-Okla.). "I do have some reservations about it," Nickles said, adding, "You have to be careful not to have subsidies too much great(er) than the Medicaid level. I think it would be a mistake to have different eligibility rules for different pieces of Medicaid" (CongressDaily, 3/29).