Patient Groups Ask for End to ‘Cruel and Arbitrary’ Medicare Wait

ATLANTA–A coalition of 33 patient advocacy groups sent a letter
to Congress last week asking the nation’s legislators to strike
Medicare’s two-year waiting period for those with severe
disabilities after they start receiving Social Security disability
benefits.

The April 11 letter, sent to Senate Finance Committee Chairman
Max Baucus, D-Mont., and other members of Congress, was signed by
organizations including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society,
Easter Seals, United Cerebral Palsy, the Rehabilitation Engineering
and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) and
others, including the New York-based Medicare Rights Center.

According to a press release from the MRC, people deemed
disabled by the Social Security Administration due to
incapacitating health problems are not eligible for Medicare until
24 months after they receive their first Social Security disability
income benefit. The release said some 600,000 Americans with severe
and debilitating disabilities are uninsured and go without health
care or into debt while waiting the required two years for their
Medicare coverage to begin.

“Congress must eliminate the cruel and arbitrary two-year wait
for Medicare which punishes Americans who are hit by severe illness
or injuries that make it impossible to keep working,” said Robert
M. Hayes, MRC president.

The two-year waiting period was originally established in 1972
when Medicare was expanded to include people with disabilities, the
release said, noting that today there are two exceptions: people
who are disabled due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or
end-stage renal disease.

The MRC also released a report, funded by The Commonwealth Fund,
in which 21 people with disabilities share their experiences while
waiting for Medicare after leaving work due to a variety of reasons
including cancer, chronic cardiac conditions, a car accident and
debilitating injuries.

“This report chronicles the devastating health and financial
toll that the waiting period takes on the lives of hard-working
Americans who are stranded without health coverage after they
become disabled,” said Hayes, an author of the report.

The MRC said that nearly 7 million people under age 65 qualify
for Medicare because they have severe and permanent disabilities,
with about 1.5 million Americans currently in the Medicare waiting
period. Twelve percent of people in the Medicare waiting period die
each year while waiting for their coverage to begin, according to
the group.

Providing men and women with Medicare at the time that Social
Security certifies them as disabled would cost $8.7 billion
annually, the MRC said. This cost would be partially offset by $4.3
billion in reduced spending by Medicaid, which many individuals get
for some time during the waiting period.

To view the MRC report, “Too Sick to Work, Too Soon for
Medicare: The Human Cost of the Two-Year Medicare Waiting Period
for Americans with Disabilities,” click here.