II 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 998 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 7, 2009 Mr. Brown (for himself, Mr. Leahy, and Mr. Reed) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To amend title II of the Social Security Act to eliminate the 5-month waiting period in the disability insurance program, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Arthur Woolweaver, Jr., Social Security Act Improvements for the Terminally Ill Act.

2.

Elimination of title II waiting period for terminally ill individuals

(a)

In general

Section 223(a)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 423(a)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: In the case of any application for disability insurance benefits filed by an individual who is determined to be under a disability and who has been certified as terminally ill by a physician (as defined in section 1861(r)(1)), this paragraph shall be applied without regard to any waiting period. For the purposes of the preceding sentence, an individual is considered to be terminally ill if the individual has a medical prognosis that the individual's life expectancy is 6 months or less.. (b)

Effective date

The amendment made by this section shall take effect with respect to applications filed after the date of the enactment of this Act.