Low-Income Advocates Contest Rule Change

Mar 31, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) The Department of Workforce Services is considering a rule change that low-income advocates say will unfairly penalize some of the state's poorest residents. Crossroads Urban Center's Bill Tibbits says the rule cancels their $261 monthly assistance checks if they fail to enroll in a state subsidized health care program, the Primary Care Network.

"They know that they have medical problems and they can't afford the care," Tibbits says. "They don't need any sticks to enroll in a health care plan. They just need a chance. All they need is an opportunity, and it's not their fault that there are so few opportunities."

Tibbits says rather than penalize them if they miss an enrollment period, the state should automatically enroll them in the Primary Care Network. The rule applies to the disabled, Tibbits says, and they might not be healthy enough during the enrollment period to get down to the office to register. However, Department of Workforce Services spokesman Curt Stewart says what low-income advocates are calling a rule change is actually a clarification of a current provision. General Assistance recipients have always been required to enroll in a health care program, Stewart says. However, the agency hasn't updated their rules since former Governor Mike Leavitt created the Primary Care Network.

"It's not aimed at penalizing people who don't have it. It is to make sure that when they have an opportunity to sign up that they do, because there is consequences for non-participation," Stewart says. "And that is made clear when they sign the employment plan when they enroll in the program."

At the request of advocacy groups, the Department of Workforce Services will hold a public hearing about the issue tonight at 5 p.m.

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