WASHINGTON — Advocates working to end the two-year delay in Medicare coverage for people with severe disabilities are hoping the third time will be the charm.
On Wednesday, Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, introduced the Ending the Medicare Disability Waiting Period Act of 2009 (H.R. 1708) in the House with a companion bill (S. 700) introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., in the Senate.
The bill had been introduced in Congress' last session in November. And two years ago, President Barack Obama, then an Illinois senator, cosponsored the Ending the Medicare Disability Waiting Period Act of 2007.
Currently, 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 two-year waiting period, originally established in 1972 when Medicare was expanded to include people with disabilities, today has two exceptions: people who are disabled due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or end-stage renal disease. (For more, see Patient Groups Ask for End to 'Cruel and Arbitrary' Medicare Wait, April 16, 2007.)
This time around, the bill is backed by more than 120 advocacy organizations and provider groups that have formed the Coalition to End the Two-Year Wait for Medicare. Following introduction of the bill, the coalition addressed a letter to Green and Bingaman supporting the legislation.
According to the coalition, an estimated 1.8 million people with severe disabilities are waiting to become eligible for Medicare coverage. "The waiting period forces people with severe disabilities to endure two years during which treatment and care of their condition are put at risk," the letter said. "Many forgo medical treatment and/or stop taking medications, compromising their already fragile health and resulting ultimately in conditions that are often more costly to treat when Medicare coverage finally begins."
With health reform on the horizon, the coalition wrote, "there is a unique opportunity to close this unjustifiable gap in health care coverage for people with disabilities. Nearly 40 percent of people with disabilities are without health insurance coverage at some point during their wait for Medicare; 24 percent have no health insurance during this entire period. We support your legislation, which will phase out the waiting period for all people with disabilities over 10 years, while immediately eliminating the waiting period for people with life-threatening conditions."
Members of the coalition include, among others, the Alzheimer's Association, the American Medical Rehabilitation Providers Association, the COPD Foundation, Easter Seals, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Spina Bifida Association and United Cerebral Palsy.