State Coverage Insurance (SCI)
Human Services Department to Begin Waiting List for Individuals Applying for the State Coverage Insurance Program
Waiting List to Begin November 2, 2009
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The New Mexico Human Services Department will begin a waiting list for individual applicants for the popular State Coverage Insurance (SCI) Program beginning November 2, 2009 in an effort to contain costs in the Medical Assistance Division. For the immediate future SCI applications submitted as part of employer groups will continue to be processed as submitted and enrolled without waiting list limitations.
"The SCI program serves nearly 45,000 New Mexico adults who previously were without health coverage," said Pamela Hyde, Human Services Department Secretary. "The waiting list is an effort to keep this very important program up and running to serve as many New Mexicans as the department can fund."
The Human Services Department is currently in the process of considering cost containment measures for Medicaid and other health coverage programs due to a projected shortfall in the current and upcoming budget years. The SCI waiting list is one of those measures and depending on future funding, federal changes, or other factors, more changes could occur to the SCI program as well as the other health coverage programs available through the department.
The department has set up a waiting list protocol to handle the submissions of SCI applications submitted for approval. All individual applicants who have submitted an SCI application postmarked by the end of today, October 1, 2009, will have their application processed for eligibility. The department is dedicating additional resources to process as many individual applications as possible that are submitted between October 2, 2009 and November 2, 2009, the day the waiting list begins. All applications that are not processed by November 2, 2009 will be placed on the new waiting list.
The SCI program was implemented as part of Governor Richardson’s Insure New Mexico! Solutions in July 2005, designed to cover low-income, uninsured, working adults (ages 19-64) in a primarily employer based model with cost-sharing on a sliding-scale based on income.
More than 1,000 New Mexico small employer groups that have obtained coverage for their employees through the SCI program, with the average employer group size of just over nine employees per group. The majority of industrial categories are food service, hospitality, retail, health care and education services.
Eligibility for the SCI program is based on household incomes below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. For example an individual with an annual income of $21,660 or a family of two with an annual income of $29,140 would likely qualify.
People interested in the SCI program can receive an application by either calling the Insure New Mexico! Solutions Center at 1-888-997-2583 or visiting the Insure New Mexico! Website at www.insurenewmexico.net.
Important Links
Insure New Mexico - Visit the official site for more information on State Coverage Insurance.
Application for SCI in English
Application for SCI in Spanish
Have Questions? - Use this list to find someone in your area that can answer your questions about SCI.
Press Release, "The NM Human Services Department Announces "No Waiting List" for State Coverage Insurance Program" May 29, 2009 - Read the press release announcing SCI is open.