Statements and Speeches

Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999
March 18, 1999

By Henry A. Waxman

I'm pleased to join with Congressman Rick Lazio, with Nancy Johnson and Bob Matsui and our other colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee, with the Chairman and Ranking Member of the full Commerce Committee and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, and with all the rest of our colleagues we have here today to introduce the Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999.

We could have no stronger argument for the swift consideration and passage of this legislation than the comments we have just heard from the courageous people who preceded me. They are what this bill is all about: people who are dealing with their disabilities, people who want to work, and who are determined to be productive members of society. But these people need our help to keep their health care coverage through Medicaid and Medicare so that they can stay in the work force. We owe them nothing less.

It is a testament to the compelling nature of their case that this bill has such broad and bipartisan support. It has support from both parties, from both committees in the House with jurisdiction, from both Houses, and from both the President and the Congress. It has support at the State level as well as here in Washington. It is moderate in cost, and offers benefits in productiveness and self-respect and decent treatment that far outweigh the expenditures required.

I want to stress several things about this legislation. First, it provides States with options to allow them to use their Medicaid programs to cover severely disabled people who can work if their health care coverage is continued. And it also authorizes an extremely important demonstration program to allow States to provide Medicaid coverage at a stage that will prevent people from having their disability become so severe that they will become eligible for SSI or SSDI.. Surely, that is one of the most sensible things we can do.

Second, for persons who have become eligible for Medicare because of their disability, they will also have the opportunity to keep Medicare if they later are able to return to work. Again, this is an absolutely critical provision, and one that makes a great deal of common sense. Who would benefit if we deny continued coverage by Medicare if a person goes to work, and so force them to give up that opportunity to work--and then stay on the program anyway.

I want to acknowledge the contribution of our colleagues at Ways and Means who started the focus on this problem with their "ticket" legislation of the last Congress. I think we all agree that this bill builds on and improves that effort by adding the absolutely critical access to health care that is, after all, the element that will allow the successful return to work of disabled people.

We all look forward to working together to secure swift action on this legislation.