Medicaid and Title IV-E Programs; Revision to the Definition of an Unemployed Parent
medicaid · Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services · Rule · Published 1998-08-07 · Effective 1998-08-07 · 63 FR 42270
Document
Document number
98-21146
Federal Register citation
63 FR 42270
CFR reference
45 CFR 233
Type
Rule
Action
Final rule with comment period.
Category
medicaid
Sub-agency
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Publication date
1998-08-07
Effective date
1998-08-07
HHS docket
HCFA-2106-FC
Abstract
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) transformed the nation's welfare system into one that requires work in exchange for time-limited assistance. The law eliminated the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and replaced it with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The law provides States flexibility to design their TANF programs in ways that strengthen families and promote work, responsibility, and self- sufficiency while holding them accountable for results. Many States are using this flexibility to provide welfare to work assistance to two parent families, which was more difficult to do under the old welfare rules. However, pre-existing regulations regarding the definition of ``unemployed parent'' prevent some States from providing intact families with health insurance to help them stay employed. This rule will eliminate this vestige of the old welfare system in order to promote work, strengthen families, and simplify State program administration. In general under PRWORA, States must ensure that families who would have qualified for Medicaid health benefits under the prior welfare law are still eligible. While under the previous law receipt of AFDC qualified families for Medicaid, the new statute does not tie receipt of TANF to Medicaid. Instead, subject to some exceptions, Medicaid eligibility for families and children now depends upon whether a family would have qualified for AFDC under the rules in effect on July 16, 1996. Similarly, Federal foster care eligibility depends on whether the child would have qualified for AFDC under the rules in effect on July 16, 1996. In order for a family to qualify for assistance under the pre- PRWORA AFDC rules, its child had to be deprived of parental support or care due to the death, absence, incapacity, or unemployment of a parent. Two parent families generally qualified only under the ``unemployment'' criterion which was narrowly define