Families in Arizona Can Apply for Kids Health Coverage After March 1; Disabled Kids’ Parents will get Additional Help
More children in Arizona will have access to health care, according to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who claims that two modifications to the state’s Medicaid program will help families with disabled children.
Families with incomes up to 225% of the federal poverty threshold are now eligible for the state’s children’s healthcare program, thanks to a bill that Hobbs signed last year. Families with incomes up to 200% of that threshold were the only ones eligible before.
According to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid organization, the federal government formally approved that modification on Feb. 16.
The new rules make the state’s KidsCare program available to families with incomes up to $70,200 per year.
As many as 10,000 children might become eligible, according to Hobbs.
Benefits can begin as early as April 1 for families that qualify under the new KidsCare program, and applications are due March 1 for those families.
This year, the enlarged KidsCare program will receive $5.5 million from the budget that Hobbs signed last year, and next year, it will receive $6.6 million. The parental caregiver program also received $133,100.
Parents who take care of disabled children and receive financial compensation for their efforts are part of a program that AHCCCS has stated it would permanently implement.
Up to forty hours of paid time off each week are available to parents of disabled minors enrolled in the Arizona Long-Term Care System.
