[NYAPRS Enews] NYS Legislators Back Greater Promotion of Medicaid Buy In

[Matt Canuteson]

NYAPRS Note: The following piece highlights yesterday's NYS Assembly
hearing on employment of New Yorkers with disabilities. Several speakers
agreed that state agencies should do more to publicize the work
incentives contained within the state's Medicaid Buy In program which
was approved back in 2002 but is still not sufficiently understood or
promoted, particularly at the Local Social Service Department level.
While the piece seems to call for the Buy In's passage, we believe they
intended to report on calls for its greater implementation. Note the
references to calls for a business advisory council, expansion of paid
internship programs and greater enforcement of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.

 

Insurance Break Sought For Mentally Ill

By Dan Osburn  Gannett News Service   June 3, 2008

 

ALBANY - The Assembly mental-health committee chairman said Monday the
state should allow mentally ill people to continue to get taxpayer-paid
health insurance while employed to encourage them to get jobs.

 

Peter Rivera, D-Bronx said he wants to establish a buy-in system where
the disabled can be employed and still receive Medicaid benefits since
many who suffer from mental disabilities fear they will lose the
benefits if they work.

 

Currently, "we pay people to stay home instead of seeking employment,"
he said.

 

"The state loses an opportunity where we can tax people who are
gainfully employed."

 

However, there is no legislation planned to implement the idea.

 

"There's a cost to it and it has to be negotiated," he said. "It's
something that we have to start talking about."

 

Senate Mental Health Committee chairman Thomas Morahan, R-New City,
Rockland County, supports the idea, a spokesman said.

 

Michael Hogan, commissioner of the state Office of Mental Health, said
that people with mental disabilities are especially prone to problems
with jobs.

 

"A combination of the disability, healthcare problems, the stigma
results in them (falling) below what their capabilities could be," he
said at a hearing on the problems of the mentally ill before Rivera's
committee.

 

About 15 percent of the 400,000 adults receiving mental health treatment
in New York State have jobs, he said.

 

Nationally about $193 billion in taxable wages are lost annually because
of mental illness, he said. About $12 billion a year in wages are lost
by New Yorkers with mental illness who don't have jobs or have to take
time off because of their illnesses, he said.

 

The federal Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 has affected over 50
million Americans living with disabilities - about 19 percent of the
population - but does not do enough to ensure the mentally disabled have
fair opportunities in the workplace, Rivera said.

 

Rivera also said the state needs to educate employers on tax incentives
they can receive for employing the disabled -- a base grant from the
state of $3,000 for every disabled person and federal tax credit of
$7,000, he said.

 

"How many employers know they are entitled to a $10,000 federal tax
credit?" Rivera asked.

 

Diana Jones-Ritter, commissioner of the state Office of Mental
Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, said the state should
establish a "business advisory council" that would organize business
leaders and educate them on these benefits.

 

Rivera said he supports OMRDD's 18-month paid internship program for the
disabled, where intern earns a full-time position for the employer after
the internship is complete.

 

Harvey Rosenthal of the state Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Services said that while employment opportunities and earning for the
disabled are lower than others, there are ways to improve the
conditions.

 

Rosenthal said he supports the Medicaid buy-in to encourage the mentally
disabled to get into the work-force.

 

The median income for a full-time employee with disabilities was $32,000
per year compared to $40,000 per year for those without, Rosenthal said.

 

The gap in median household income is even more alarming, he said, with
household income for people with disabilities earning $35,200 compared
to $71,100 for those without.

 

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080603/NEWS
01/806030339/1002/NEWS01 

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