Politics on the Hudson

   Bills signed into law by Gov. David Paterson today will allow adult children to stay on their parents’ job-based health-care plan until they are 29 and unemployed workers to purchase insurance from their former employers for up to 36 months at a rate lower than what it would cost for an individual plan.

   Children age out of eligibility for coverage on their parents’ plans at 19 or in their early 20s. About one in three of the estimated 2.5 million uninsured New Yorkers are in this age range. They may not have a job, or it may not provide health insurance, and many people go without coverage. The law, which takes effect Sept. 1, won’t cost taxpayers any more money. Families will pay the premiums to insurance companies.

   The legislation for laid-off workers will double the amount of time they are eligible to purchase health benefits after they lose their jobs, to 36 months. Federal law known as COBRA gives people the right to purchase coverage under these circumstances. The new state law is retroactive to July 1. Earlier this year, Congress passed and the president signed a law earlier this year that lowered the COBRA premiums for people laid off beteen Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31 of this year to 35 percent of the full cost for nine months.

   A third law signed by Paterson today makes changes to the managed-care system, such as requiring faster reviews of requests for home-health care after a hospital visit, allowing providers to ask for reconsideration of a claim that is denied as untimely, allow providers who have just received their licenses or moved to New York to get temporary credentials, speed payment by insurance companies to doctors and hospitals.

   Also today, the governor signed legislation to strengthen the state’s tax-credit program for historic preservation. The credit provides incentives to developers, municipalities, businesses and residents to make investments in distressed areas by rehabilitating historic properties listed on the state and national registers.

   The state enacted a preservation tax-credit program in 2006, but incentives were not high enough to attract sufficient investment in struggling municipalites, particularly upstate, according to the governor. The cap on commercial credit value will increase from $100,000 to $5 million over five years, and from $25,000 to $50,000 for residential properties. Tax credits will be targeted to poor urban areas. The state will increase the share of qualified rehabilitation costs that commercial property owners can claim for credit from 6 percent to 20 percent.

   The program applies to taxable years beginning Jan. 1, 2010, and will expire five years after that.