NORD supports legislation introduced June 24, 2004, by U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to phase out the two-year waiting period for Medicare health insurance coverage for disabled and seriously ill people under age 65. Currently, Medicare provides coverage for people with long-term disabilities and chronic illnesses who are entitled to cash benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. In most cases, however, those individuals must wait five months for disability benefits, and an additional two years for Medicare benefits, to begin.
The bill (S. 2566) introduced by Sen. Bingaman and co-sponsored by several other senators would phase out the waiting period over the next 10 years. It would also create a process by which the waiting period can be waived, in the interim, for people with life-threatening illnesses. The proposed legislation is called the Ending the Medicare Disability Waiting Period Act of 2004.
Earlier this year, Mathematica Policy Research, a Princeton-based policy studies institute, released a report estimating that there were 1.26 million SSDI beneficiaries in the Medicare waiting period as of January 2002. An update from NORD's Washington Office to NORD member organizations on June 29, 2004, noted that this number includes an estimated 400,000 Americans with disabilities who have no health insurance coverage and many others with inadequate coverage at a time in their lives when the need for health coverage is most dire.
NORD is encouraging individuals and organizations supporting Sen. Bingaman's bill to let their federal legislators know their feelings to lay the groundwork for getting it included in the federal budget for enactment next year. Organizations with comments on the proposed legislation may contact Bruce Lesley in Sen. Bingaman's office at Bruce_Lesley@bingaman.senate.gov or (202) 224-5521.
