SECOND REGULAR SESSION
[TRULY AGREED TO AND FINALLY PASSED]
97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
AN ACT
To repeal section 209.040, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to blind pension benefit requirements.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 209.040, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 209.040, to read as follows:
209.040. 1. No person shall be entitled to a pension under sections 209.010 to 209.160 who does not have vision with or without properly adjusted glasses, up to but not including five two-hundredths, or whose best visual field is five degrees as tested with five millimeter target on perimeter. No person shall be entitled to receive a pension except upon a scientific vision test supported by a certificate of an ophthalmologist, a physician skilled in disease of the eye, or an optometrist, designated or approved by the department of social services to make such examination. To continue to be eligible to receive a pension under the provisions of this section, a person shall present to the department of social services every fifth year after the initial vision test a new certificate of an ophthalmologist, a physician skilled in disease of the eye, or an optometrist, designated or approved by the department to make a scientific vision test that such person continues to meet the requirements of this section. Persons who have been deemed by an ophthalmologist, a physician skilled in disease of the eye, or an optometrist to have no usable vision shall be exempt from the five-year reexamination requirement of this subsection. Every person passing the vision test and having the other qualifications provided in sections 209.010 to 209.160 shall be entitled to receive a monthly pension in an amount established by appropriations made by the general assembly for that purpose but not less than three hundred forty dollars; except that pensions to the blind as provided herein shall not be payable to a blind person unless such person has been declared ineligible to receive aid under the federal supplemental security income program, nor shall pensions to the blind as provided herein be payable to any person who is receiving general relief assistance.
2. If the funds at the disposal of or which may be obtained by the department of social services for the payment of benefits under this section shall at any time become insufficient to pay the full amount of benefits to each person entitled thereto, the amount of benefits of each one of such persons shall be reduced pro rata in proportion to such deficiency in the total amount available or to become available for such purpose.
3. Medical assistance for blind recipients eligible for such assistance under the provisions of sections 208.151 to 208.158 shall be payable as provided in sections 208.151 to 208.158 without regard to any durational residence requirement for eligibility out of funds designated for such medical assistance and not from the blind pension fund.
4. The monthly pension provided in subsection 1 of this section shall be increased by the general assembly by an appropriation bill by a monthly pension amount which equals one-twelfth of the quotient obtained by dividing seventy-five percent of the annual growth of funds in the blind pension fund for the preceding fiscal year by the number of persons eligible to receive the monthly pension provided in subsection 1 of this section.
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