United States — Maine Act or statute

United States — Maine legislation

Maine Revised Statutes, Title 24-A, § 4234: Child coverage, 1991

This section requires covered health plans and contracts to give unmarried enrollees and adopted children the same dependent-child benefits as married enrollees or natural children, and bars financial-dependency testing…

dependent child coveragehealth maintenance organizationsmedicaid coordination

Professional statute overview

Enactment structure, operative effect and source provenance

Official source

01

Purpose and legislative effect

“This section requires covered health plans and contracts to give unmarried enrollees and adopted children the same dependent-child benefits as married enrollees or natural children, and bars financial-dependency testing and Medicaid-based coverage decisions.”

Use this record to locate individual provisions, understand the instrument’s recorded structure, and move from a research summary to the exact source text.

02

How the instrument operates

  1. 01

    Start with the recorded version

    Enacted 1991 · Source version 1 Oct 2025. The date shown identifies this source expression and should not be treated as proof that no later change exists.

  2. 02

    Locate the controlling provision

    Use the provision map, part headings and full-text filter to move from the broad subject to the exact legal language.

  3. 03

    Read conditions and exceptions together

    Keep subsections, definitions, provisos and cross-references in context before drawing a legal conclusion.

  4. 04

    Verify currency and official wording

    Confirm later legislation, commencement notices and corrections with the official publisher before advice, filing or reliance.

03

Research entry points

Selected provisions across the instrument. Open any row to continue with the exact stored text.

Child coverage

This section requires covered health plans and contracts to give unmarried enrollees and adopted children the same dependent-child benefits as married enrollees or natural children, and bars financial-dependency testing and Medicaid-based coverage decisions.

Section 4234

04

Source and current-law status

Source record view

Source record from legislature.maine.gov · Enacted 1991 · Source version 1 Oct 2025

Verify current force

The source record does not state a definitive current-law status. Check the official publisher and later amendments before relying on this text.

Source-indexed provision map

Sections and provisions

Search by section, heading, part or exact legal wording. Every result remains linked to the stored source record.

Showing 1 of 1 provisions

Interpretation
§ 4234Child coverageInterpretation

This section requires covered health plans and contracts to give unmarried enrollees and adopted children the same dependent-child benefits as married enrollees or natural children, and bars financial-dependency testing and Medicaid-based coverage decisions.

1. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings. A. "Dependent children" means children who are under 19 years of age and are children, stepchildren or adopted children of, or children placed for adoption with, the enrollee, member or spouse of the enrollee or member. [PL 1993, c. 666, Pt. A, §7 (NEW).] B. "Placed for adoption" means the assumption and retention of a legal obligation by a person for the total or partial support of a child in anticipation of adoption of the child. If the legal obligation ceases to exist, the child is no longer considered placed for adoption. [PL 1993, c. 666, Pt. A, §7 (NEW).] [PL 1993, c. 666, Pt. A, §7 (RPR).] 2. Coverage. All individual or group coverage subject to this chapter must provide unmarried enrollees with the same benefits or option of benefits for dependent children as is extended to dependent children of married enrollees, at appropriate rates and under the same terms and conditions. [PL 1991, c. 200, Pt. B, §5 (NEW).] 3. Financial dependency. Financial dependency of dependent children on the enrollee or the spouse of the enrollee may not be required as a condition for eligibility for coverage. [PL 1991, c. 200, Pt. B, §5 (NEW).] 4. Adopted children. All individual or group contracts issued in accordance with the requirements of this section must provide the same benefits to dependent children placed for adoption with the enrollee or spouse of the enrollee under the same terms and conditions as apply to natural dependent children or stepchildren of the enrollee or spouse of the enrollee, irrespective of whether the adoption has become final. [PL 1993, c. 666, Pt. A, §8 (NEW).] 5. Medicaid. Health maintenance organizations may not consider the availability or eligibility for medical assistance under 42 United States Code, Section 13969, referred to as "Medicaid," when considering coverage eligibility or benefit calculations for enrollees and covered family members. A. To the extent that payment for coverage expenses has been made under the Medicaid program for health care items or services furnished to an individual, the State is considered to have acquired the rights of the enrollee or family member to payment by the health maintenance organization for those health care items or services. Upon presentation of proof that the Medicaid program has paid for covered items or services, the health maintenance organization shall make payment to the Medicaid program according to the coverage provided in the contract or certificate. [PL 1993, c. 666, Pt. B, §3 (NEW).] B. A health maintenance organization may not impose requirements on a state agency that has been assigned the rights of an individual eligible for Medicaid and covered by an enrollee contract that are different from requirements applicable to an agent or assignee of any other covered individual. [PL 1993, c. 666, Pt. B, §3 (NEW).] [PL 1993, c. 666, Pt. B, §3 (NEW).]
Section 4234Verify source

Legislative relationships

0 referenced instruments

Names are derived from the stored provision headings and citation-enrichment layer. Treat this as a research index and verify each relationship against the source text.

No structured legislative relationships were detected

The statute remains fully searchable by provision. Consult the source text for amendments and cross-references that have not yet been indexed.

Recorded versions and source checkpoint

1 version available in this collection

Current-law checkpoint
  • 1 Oct 2025 · currentEnglish

Source-linked research

Ask AI about this statute

The overview, provisions, and source records above are public. Continue in a separate conversation with this statute’s jurisdiction and source version attached.

About this LexChat collection

Statute information is organised from identified legislative sources for professional research. Corrections can be reported to hello@esheria.ai.