[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 43 (Thursday, March 18, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E484-E485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ASSISTING SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY BENEFICIARIES IN THEIR RETURN TO 
           WORK: THE WORK INCENTIVES IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ROBERT T. MATSUI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 18, 1999

  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in the 
introduction of ``The Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999.'' This 
legislation is designed to help Social Security Disability Insurance 
and SSI beneficiaries participate more fully in our nation's economy. 
It provides new opportunities and new incentives for people with 
disabilities to return to the work force.

[[Page E485]]

  The Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 enjoys widespread 
support. It has gathered bipartisan sponsorship in the House and has 
already been approved by a bipartisan majority in the Senate Finance 
Committee.
  Many, many beneficiaries urgently want to return to work and to make 
the most of their talents and abilities, but they are simply unable to 
do so for a variety of reasons. For instance, while people with 
disabilities possess the clear desire to work, they often require 
vocational rehabilitation, job training, or some other form of 
assistance in order to find a job and to hold that job over the long 
run. This bill would create incentives for providers of services to 
offer necessary assistance and to stay involved with the individual to 
assure as he adjusts to the work force.
  At a hearing before the Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee 
last week, the General Accounting Office reported that the single most 
important barrier to work for people with disabilities is the fear of 
loss of medical coverage. People with disabilities are discouraged from 
securing employment, as they lose not only their SSDI or SSI benefits 
but also their medical coverage if they are successful in returning to 
work.
  This legislation would extend medical coverage for people with 
disabilities who wish to return to work. The bill that the House passed 
last year by an overwhelmingly bipartisan margin--the Ticket to Work 
and Self-Sufficiency Act--made admirable progress in this regard. But I 
believe we can, and should, do more. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues on the Commerce Committee to remove this barrier to work.
  Rather than maintain the current barriers to work, we should strive 
to facilitate the transition back to the workforce for people with 
disabilities. Rather than penalize people with disabilities once they 
do return to work, we should ensure that they do not have to bear the 
costly burden of health insurance before they are able to do so. The 
Work Incentives Improvement Act accomplishes both those goals.
  The Act would provide disability beneficiaries with a ``Ticket to 
Work,'' which could be presented to either a private vocational 
rehabilitation provider or to a State vocational rehabilitation agency 
in exchange for services such as physical therapy or job training. The 
``Ticket to Work'' would afford SSDI and SSI beneficiaries a much 
greater choice of providers and would thus enable them to match their 
particular needs with the capacities of private entities or public 
agencies more readily. Moreover, the Ticket program would spur 
providers, both public and private, to offer the most effective 
services possible, since, under the Ticket program, providers share in 
the savings to government that arise when a SSDI or SSI beneficiary 
returns to the workforce and no longer receives benefit payments.
  The Work Incentives Improvement Act would also help to remove the 
most formidable obstacle that people with disabilities face in 
returning to work--the loss of their health care coverage. Last year's 
House-passed bill would have extended Medicare coverage for an 
additional two years beyond current law for individuals who leave the 
disability rolls to return to work. The Work Incentives Improvement Act 
that I am introducing today would build upon the foundation laid last 
year in a number of ways. First, it would extend Medicare coverage to 
10 years for disability beneficiaries who return to work. Second, it 
would allow states to offer a Medicaid buy-in to people with 
disabilities whose incomes would make them ineligible for SSI.
  Taken together, these provisions offer people with disabilities the 
support and the incentives they need as they strive to return to work. 
Consequently, I hope Members of both parties will join me and the other 
sponsors of the Work Incentives Improvement Act in enacting this 
innovative legislation this year and in helping to improve the lives of 
people with disabilities, people who want to work and who want to 
contribute, even more than they already do, to a brighter future for 
all Americans.

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