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NewsBank, inc. - The Associated Press - 1999 - Article with Citation
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 Headline: 	Clinton to Push Plan for Disabled

 Date:     	Wednesday, January 13, 1999; 9:03 a.m. EST    
                               			
 Dateline: 	Washington DC                  

 Author: 	Laura Meckler Associated Press Writer

 Length:  	1543 words                

 Text:

	WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton is proposing a new $2 billion, five-year budget package meant to help tens of thousands of disabled Americans return to work through a combination of health coverage, tax credits and better rehabilitation services. 

	Advocates say that health coverage -- the largest piece of the package -- is the No. 1 barrier that prevents people with disabilities from returning to the workplace. Often they find jobs that do not offer health insurance coverage, and often their disabilities make it extraordinarily expensive to buy coverage on their own. 

	Clinton plans a White House ceremony today to endorse legislation on health benefits being introduced next week by Sens. James Jeffords, R-Vt., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., administration and congressional officials said. 

	``A major obstacle will be removed from the fulfillment of every disabled person's dream to work, live independently and be a contributing member of society,'' Kennedy said in a statement. 

	The president will also offer tax credits to help disabled workers pay for transportation, equipment and other expenses and more money to develop new information and communications technologies to help people with disabilities function in the workplace. 

	And he will back a plan that would let people with disabilities choose their rehabilitation centers, creating competition for the first time for the organizations that train people to take jobs. Centers that successfully place people in jobs would get bonus payments, thus reaping some of the savings the government will realize from reduced disability payments. 

	Under the current system, less than one-half of 1 percent of the 10 million Americans receiving disability benefits ever return to work, including people in the Social Security system for workers and the Supplemental Security Income program for the poor. 

	Their advocates argue that's because the system punishes them when they go to work -- forcing them to choose between health benefits and a job. 

	The health insurance plan would cost $1.2 billion over five years, and is expected to be considered by the Senate Finance Committee, where it has two powerful advocates: Chairman William Roth, R-Del., and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, the panel's top Democrat. 

	The measure would encourage states to offer Medicaid to people who return to work, allowing them to buy into the program even if their incomes are too high under current limits. States could also let people buy into Medicaid even if their conditions have improved but they remain impaired and need health coverage. 

	The plan would also allow people with disabilities to continue receiving Medicare benefits, which are not as generous as state benefits but would be available to people across the nation, regardless of a state's policy. 

	Clinton will also endorse two other initiatives: 

	-- A $750 million, five-year plan to give $1,000 tax credits to people with disabilities who go back to work. This would help defray the cost of transportation, technology and other expenses necessary to take a job. 

	-- Doubling money spent on developing assisted technology to help people with disabilities function. 

	The legislation being offered by Jeffords, chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, and Kennedy, the panel's top Democrat, would also create a demonstration project to test the effect of phasing out benefits as people earn more.

	Under current law, disability beneficiaries lose their entire grants if they earn more than $500 a month, prompting some to turn down raises or limit their hours. 

c Copyright 1999 The Associated Press

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