Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today hosted the agency’s fourth public hearing on Compassionate Allowances. Commissioner Astrue was joined by Marie A. Bernard, M.D., Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, and other Social Security officials. They heard testimony from some of the nation’s leading experts on early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias about possible methods for identifying and implementing Compassionate Allowances for people with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

“This year, through Compassionate Allowances and our Quick Disability Determination process, over 100,000 Americans with severe disabilities will be approved for Social Security disability benefits in a matter of days rather than the months and years it can sometimes take,” said Commissioner Astrue. “We are now looking to add more diseases and impairments to these expedited processes. With today’s hearing, we are expanding our focus from specific rare diseases and cancers to look at subgroups of much broader conditions. Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease is a rapidly progressive and debilitating disease of the brain that affects individuals between the ages of 50 and 65 and clearly deserves our consideration.”

In October 2008, Social Security launched Compassionate Allowances to expedite the processing of disability claims for applicants with medical conditions so severe that their conditions by definition meet Social Security’s standards. To learn more and to view a web cast of today’s hearing, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.

“With the aging of the baby-boomers, we are beginning to see more, younger working Americans diagnosed with this devastating disease,” Commissioner Astrue said. “I want to thank the Alzheimer’s Association and their staff, particularly Harry Johns, President and CEO. Their help has been invaluable and many of the witnesses are here at their suggestion. Together, we hope to identify the most severe cases that can be included in our Compassionate Allowances process.”

The 24-month wait for Medicare is one of the most puzzling parts of disability benefits. Why should the folks who paid in to Social Security for a lifetime of work be the ones who wait? People on SSI get Medicaid immediately – and it should be like that for everyone. Let’s hope Obama’s heath care reform addresses this point. Read this story from the Dallas Morning News to see the impact of waiting:

…”Under current law, however, those with disabilities aren’t eligible for Medicare until two years after they begin receiving Social Security disability insurance checks. Johnson is one of 1.8 million disabled Americans in that two-year waiting period.

“No longer able to work, she became eligible for Social Security disability benefits in February 2008, which means she has seven months left until she goes on Medicare.

“Because she can’t afford private insurance, she prays that her condition doesn’t worsen before then.

“It’s not my fault that I’m disabled,” Johnson said. “I paid my Social Security and Medicare taxes during my entire working life. Why now, when I most need the care, must I wait so long? It doesn’t seem fair.” See complete article here:

From today’s New York Daily News, the president gets a up-close-and- personal story about the dysfunction of the Social Secuirty claim process for terminally ill people: “President Obama played the comforter-in-chief Wednesday when a woman with kidney cancer, no insurance and little hope went looking for help at his health care summit.

“Obama gave an emotional Debby Smith a hug and a promise, but she also may have given him a hand by making herself a living argument for his health reform.

“I’ll try not to cry,” Smith, 53, told Obama at a town hall-style forum in Northern Virginia, explaining how 11 years ago she skipped a more certain treatment for a kidney tumor so she could help her dying father.

“She was left disabled, she said, and now has no job, no insurance and no Social Security.

“I get food stamps, but that’s it,” said Smith, of Appalachia, Va. “And I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to make it nine years till I’m qualified to get my regular Social Security, now that I have a new tumor and have no way to treat it.”

Read more: www.nydailynews.com

There is a link to the July 1, 2009 edition of the MEDICAID WATCH under the “what’s new” tab here: Click here to read more

Note that notable and recent state developments and proposals that expand access and eligibility appear in blue, while notable and recent state developments and proposals that cut access and eligibility are printed in red. The last page contains a regularly-updated listing of sources and resources on state health coverage, with the most recent items highlighted in yellow.

The MEDICAID WATCH not only covers state-level Medicaid eligibility and access news; it also reports on other state health assistance programs, including:

• the State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP);
  states’ own non-federally-funded medical assistance programs;
• State Pharmacy Assistance Programs (SPAPs);
• State AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs);
• state-subsidized or -sponsored health insurance programs for limited income persons;
• state-subsidized high risk health insurance pools (including premium discounts given by some risk pools to those with incomes under state-set levels);
• and safety-net hospitals offering free or discounted care to the indigent.

For each state, we now note, as percentages of the annual Federal Poverty Levels (FPL), the most recently-tabulated income eligibility levels for aged/disabled and parental Medicaid; medical assistance for childless, non-disabled adults (if they get Medicaid via an eligibility expansion waiver or other public Medicaid-like coverage in their state); SCHIP; ADAPs; SPAPs; state-subsidized or -sponsored health insurance; states’ Medicare Savings Program (MSP) eligibility liberalizations; and any risk pool low income premium discount programs. The 2009 FPL, for your convenience, is noted on page 13 of this edition— as is the 2008 FPL (since it was that year’s level which was used to tabulate state Medicaid parental levels in the most recent national survey used here as a source).

Details on state income and asset levels, their income disregards, a “2009 VA Health…Benefits” guide and a helpful Glossary appear in those documents below “From the Community Access National Network (CANN)” among “Other Organizations’ Materials” under the “Library” icon at www.healthlaw.org .

Please do share this with your colleagues and affiliates at the state and local level. We welcome your comments, news items and corrections; email me at tomxix@ix.netcom.com .

Thomas P. McCormack
Editor, MEDICAID WATCH
&
Public Benefits Policy Consultant
Community Access National Network (TIICANN)
www.tiicann.org
Washington, DC
(202) 479-2543