PAI Supports Legislation to Phase Out Medicare Waiting Period

[Guest guest]

I wanted to make sure that everyone knows what is happening with Campaign

Capital Hill. The PAI 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, as you know,

we 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.

NORD, the National Organization of Rare Diseases, stated that an estimated

400,000 Americans with disabilities 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. The PAI does not have a figure of how many persons

with pancreatitis are in that group, but we know that one is too many.

U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) urges any individual and organizations

supporting his bill to contact your federal legislators to tell them how

important this bill is. Input from constituents is important to lay the

groundwork for getting it included in the federal budget for enactment next

year.

To find out who your congressperson and Representative is go to the PAI home

page and click on campaign capital hill. The rest is self-explanatory.

The full bill can be viewed at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query.

The PAI has made an official response in support of the proposed legislation to

Senator Bingaman. The PAI individual members need to show their support to their

respective legislator.

Currently the Secretary of Health and Human Services requested that the

Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences conduct a study on the

range of disability conditions that can be delayed or prevented if individuals

receive access to health care services and coverage before the condition reaches

disability levels. This study will be done 2005 and 2006. So write and tell them

your story of what happened while you were waiting.

Additionally, the Secretary is consulting the NIH, NORD, CDC, etc, to compile a

list of conditions that are fatal without medical treatment. Currently, chronic

pancreatitis is not listed as a rare disease by NORD? So, please write these

organizations and tell them your story, too.

Karyn E. , RN

Executive Director, PAI

http://www.pancassociation.org

Pancreatitis Association International