Meeting of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel

[Guest guest]

(I saw this on another list and it was said it was ok to forward; I found it

helpful to read another person's experience concerning the program)

Meeting of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel

Date: July 22 (10 to 5) and 23, 2004 (9 to 4)

Type of Meeting: Public Deliberative Meeting

Purpose of Meeting: To receive briefings, deliberate, and conduct Panel

business.

Location: Renaissance Hotel

999 Ninth Street NW

Washington DC

Information about the Ticket to Work program can be found at:

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/work/Ticket/ticket_info.html

and information about the Ticket Advisory Panel (including info on this

and other meetings) can be found at: http://www.ssa.gov/work/panel

The Ticket to Work Panel, which is mandated under the Ticket to Work Act,

to advise the Social Security Administration and Congress on the Ticket

program and other Social Security work incentives (disincentives), is having

a special meeting on July 22 & 23. ... At the last regular Panel meeting

in May (they have regular meetings on a quarterly basis) the Panel members

expressed a willingness and interest in getting more input from persons on

SSI and SSDI and specifically to having beneficiaries of these programs

attend this special meeting. The panel members also were supportive of my

suggestion to establish an advisory group comprised of beneficiaries, to

ensure systematic input from those directly affected by the Ticket, and

hopefully will vote soon to make this a reality.

.... concerned about the Ticket legislation and its implementation. ... the

Ticket has had marginal success at best; ... there are many fundamental

problems with the Ticket, both conceptually and in its implementation ...

The Ticket, by the Panel's own admission, will be useful to, at best, a tiny

percentage of SSDI and SSI beneficiaries (if one or two percent of

beneficiaries go off the rolls, this will be considered a real " success " )

and an even lower percentage of those with Psychiatric Disabilities. Yet a

tremendous amount of time, money and personnel is being devoted to trying to

fix this broken program (something admitted by virtually all who have been

involved with or have studied it, including the Panel) rather than

redressing the serious flaws in the Social Security programs - including the

existing work incentives - which potentially affect a far larger number of

current and prospective beneficiaries. If the Ticket is to work at all,

these other, more fundamental issues must be resolved.

Moreover, the goal of the Ticket program - to have people on Disability

work and get off their benefits (to save the Social Security Trust Fund

money; amounts of which are trivial compared to the increased layouts of the

Trust Fund which will occur over the next 20 years, as 40 million baby

boomers are added to the rolls) - is not the goal of the vast majority of

consumers on Disability who are not working or who are working and still

receiving benefits. benefits.

Further, the Ticket is not simply an ineffective but benign program;

there are ways in which consumers could readily be harmed under it ... The

Ticket has been set up so that the financial interests of the Employment

Networks (ENs) are, more often than not, going to be at odds with the

financial (and other) interests of the beneficiaries they are supposed to

serve. That is, the ENs generally only get paid if their client earns over

the Substantial and Gainful Amount (SGA) and loses their cash benefits.

Thus, ENs would have an incentive to encourage or even push clients to go

over SGA so they will lose their cash benefits and the EN can get paid for

the services they provide. Needless to say, this may well not be in the

client's best interest. ... It also belies a serious misunderstanding of

the needs and interests of beneficiaries, especially those with Psychiatric

disabilities and other disabilities that tend to wax and wane.

.... One specific issue is vitally important to the Ticket's success: It is

absolutely clear that the Ticket cannot succeed unless health insurance,

i.e. Medicare and Medicaid, is completely divorced from one's work, health,

income or asset status or any other status. There are simply too many ways -

both known and unknown to the Panel - by which someone can lose health

benefits when going back to work (especially at the SGA level) to

meaningfully guarantee that someone who goes to work or increases their work

to the SGA level will retain health insurance. Trust me on this; the Panel

members and other so-called " experts " are not even aware of all the

permutations, catch-22's, loopholes and unforeseen consequences that can

occur. The current Panel members seem to understand this truth; that for

the Ticket to work, health care must not be contingent, but rather

essentially a categorical " entitlement. " So far, however, they have not been

willing to speak this truth to Social Security, Congress and the public. It

is important for them (and the Social Security Advisory Board) to do so, to

have them go on the record publicly about this, especially as this is an

election year. If Congress is not willing to at least make this necessary

change in the program, the public has a right to know that without this

change at a minimum, the program is doomed to failure; that 11 million

beneficiaries, and their friends, families and helpers will have been sold

an overly-hyped bill of goods.

.... to acknowledge the necessity of non-contingent health care is to

implicitly raise the necessity of Universal, i.e. non-contingent Health

Care, in general, to some extent. Just maybe, if this would get into the

public, it might have at least a tangential impact on the election discourse

about health care, Social Security and related issues, should these ever

actually get discussed during this election. Therefore, at a minimum, I

think advocates and beneficiaries should press the Panel members - who

understand this issue - to take a strong public position that health care

must be guaranteed, period, for those on Disability who try to work, and

dispense with all the game playing and contortions that now occur in trying

to convince people they will be able to retain health insurance, when such

assurances simply are not really credible. ...

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