On July 15, 2008, President Bush vetoed H.R. 6331, the “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008". On that same day, the US House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override the President Bush veto of the bill. The House vote was 383–41 and the Senate vote was 70–26. H.R. 6331 became P.L. 110-275.
WASHINGTON (July 16, 2008) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sent a press release to the National PASS Network this morning announcing today that on-line applications are now accepted from veterans, survivors and other claimants filing initial applications for disability compensation, pension, education, and vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits without the additional requirement to submit a signed paper copy of the application.
Effective immediately, VA will now process applications received through its on-line application website (VONAPP) without the claimant's signature. The electronic application will be sufficient authentication of the claimant's application for benefits. Normal development procedures and rules of evidence will still apply to all VONAPP applications.
VONAPP is a Web-based system that benefits both internal and external users. Veterans, survivors and other claimants seeking compensation, pension, education, or vocational rehabilitation benefits can apply electronically without the constraints of location, postage cost, and time delays in mail delivery.
VONAPP reduces the number of incomplete applications received by VA, decreasing the need for additional development by VA claims processors. The on-line application also provides a link to apply for VA health care benefits.
According to the VA, over 3.7 million veterans and beneficiaries receive compensation and pension benefits from VA and approximately 523,000 students receive education benefits. Approximately 90,000 disabled veterans participate in VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program.
According to a recent brief from the Center for Retirement Research, How Can We Improve Long-Term Care Financing? the existing system for providing long-term care in the United States is in significant need of change. About $200 billion each year for is spent by Americans for long-term care, but many older and disabled Americans still end up without needed care. Demographic changes indicate the system will be even more strained as a surge of aging Baby Boomers need to access to the system in the next decade.
Nearly 50% of long-term care in the United States is funded by Medicaid which provides a fairly comprehensive coverage for low- income Americans. The middle class is short changed in this system though. They can purchase expensive private insurance or rely on family members to provide the needed care. Few people purchase the long-term insurance coverage against the high costs of long-term care. The average cost of a private room in a nursing home was $74,095 a year in 2005. Medicare does not cover long-term care and only about 9 percent of the population ages 55 and older had any form of private long-term care insurance. Many Americans incorrectly believe that long-term care comes with Social Security and Medicare. This is the focus of the problem. Medicare only covers the first 100 days in a nursing home after a hospital stay and only skilled care is needed Studies show about 2/3 of people turning 65 in 2005 will need long-term care at some point and they will need that care for about 3 years. Clearly a huge problem is looming on the horizon.
There is wide agreement that there is a need for change to improve the system and make long-term care accessible to more Americans. However, predictably, there is little agreement on what kind of change is really needed. According the author of the brief, there are three approaches to addressing the problem by expanding the coverage and reducing costs. One approach is to enhance private long-term insurance by expanding federal and state subsidies. There is some debate, however, that costly subsidies are not a prudent use of limited public tax dollars. A second approach would be to create a new social insurance program like most countries in the western industrialized world. A third, and more likely scenario for the United States, would be to create a "hybrid" public-private that model that would require people to purchase private insurance through a government program and provide benefits like today's Social Security disability. This "benefit" would have more flexibility built in to take care of caregiving and assistive technology needs without the complex government regulations or private insurance limitations on services. It could work, but families will have to learn the skills needed to provide in-home care and how to hire and manage needed home health care workers.
As the author noted, current reforms that are being talked about today all have problems but they are at least an attempt to make long term care insurance more widely available by moving away from a Medicaid welfare based model to one of private and public funded insurance. Using an insurance model, the theory is that more people will be in the risk pool to spread the risk around and thus lower the costs.
The new proposals have some merit. It is a dialogue that must occur.
Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Back last year the United Nations acting on resolution by State of Qatar designated today (April 2nd) as the first of annual World Autism Awareness Day. The resolution further encouraged "all Member States of the United Nations to take measures to raise awareness about autism throughout society"..
Following through on the challenge, Autism Speaks, a national in the US, has a Virtual Walk Celebrating World Autism Awareness Day to help raise money for research and awareness for autism spectrum disorders.
As part of a month long autism awareness campaign the CDC has updated its The Learn the Signs. Act Early website to help people to get involved.
The National PASS Network encourages advocates and organizations to support individuals with autism and pass the information along to heighten awareness about a disorder affecting millions of individuals and families around the world.
Bob Woodruff of ABC News has an interesting article recently, How the Military Has Repaid Iraq Vets With Permanent Disabilities. Why Soldiers With Traumatic Brain Injuries and Permanent Handicaps Are Considered Partially Disabled. The article, part of a series by Woodruff, is about how Americans are treating it's returning heroes who have traumatic brain injuries(TBI). It's estimated that 10-15% of Iraq GI's will returning to an ungrateful nation with serious TBI injuries they will have to live with the rest of their lives
According to Woodruff's article, veterans looking to the VA for disability compensation and assistance often have to prove they were exposed to blasts and have to follow an endless paper trail to substantiate injuries and medical records. The problem is that their injuries are such that they cannot pursue this endless runaround that would be difficult even for someone without injuries. The bottom line is with no one to provide assistance to these disabled veterans there is no help forthcoming. I'm also reminded of the neglect of Iraq veterans with a troubling statistic I saw from the DoD several months back noting that although more than 3 out of 10 soldiers met the criteria for a “mental disorder”, fewer than half of them received help.
It's a crying shame. We will wonder as a nation why the costs will pop up in other areas in the coming years. Look for our nation's homeless shelters to do a booming business serving unserved veterans. As a Vietnam Vet, I am reminded of the song Deja Vu All Over Again.
On March 11, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families, announced the introduction of the Disabilities Savings Act of 2008 at an event with Autism Speaks Co-Founders Bob and Suzanne Wright, Stuart Spielman, the father of a teenage son with Autism, Kathy Neas of Easter Seals, and families of children with autism and other disabilities.
The legislation is a significant move to help families for their children with lifelong disabilities. Senator Dodd notes that the legislation "provides families with an important tool to save the money they need for their unique needs and provide for their children long after they are gone.”
This legislation has a long way to go in a year filled with election politics, but this has a good chance of passage. What this does is removes the administration of support programs that help children with lifelong disabilities from the Social Security Administration. Currently such support is only available to families who can afford legal help to develop and administer what is called a Special Needs Trust. Moreover, Senator Dodd's DSA proposes to allow for job supports such as "employment training and support, transportation, and other related services". Such a move would make the use of the Social Security work incentives which are poorly administered by SSA less used. Access now is such a hassle that families don't use them when they are needed.
Below is a description of the program from Senator Dodd's office:
Disability Savings Act of 2008
Purpose:
To encourage individuals with disabilities and their families to save private funds for disability-related expenses to supplement, not supplant, benefits provided by other sources (including Medicaid and private insurance) so that people with disabilities can maintain health, independence, and quality of life.
Overview:
This legislation encourages individuals with disabilities and their families to save personal funds for their unique disability-related needs in Disability Savings Accounts (DSAs). The establishment of DSAs will promote the investment of private funds in the long-term well-being of individuals with disabilities through tax-advantaged savings tools, including a refundable tax credit for low-income savers, while protecting the beneficiary’s access to critical public supports.
Specifics:
DSAs will provide a tax-advantaged mechanism for individuals with disabilities to save money.
* Funds expended from the DSA for specific services such as education, medical services, employment training and support, transportation, and other related services will be tax-free.
* Interest on accounts with a balance of $250,000 or less is tax free.
* Low income earners will receive a refundable matching tax credit of up to $1000 for their contributions to the DSA.
* Funds from college savings plans and special needs trusts for the same beneficiary can be rolled into the DSA without penalty.
Beneficiaries of the account must be determined to be blind or disabled by the Social Security Administration or the Disability Determination Service of a state and be under the age of 65. The account can be held and managed by the beneficiary, their spouse or family member, or a legal guardian through a financial institution. The DSAs are designed to be easier to manage and set up than current savings mechanisms, which often require the expensive services of an attorney. Beneficiaries or their representative can expend funds directly from the account for services. Assets held in the fund will not be counted against eligibility for Medicaid and SSI or other federal support services.
Most Americans do not know the risks and warning signs of diseases that could blind them if they don't seek timely detection and treatment, according to recent findings of the "Survey of Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Eye Health and Disease".
Seventy-one percent of respondents reported that a loss of their eyesight would rate as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, meaning that it would have the greatest impact on their day-to-day life. However, only eight percent knew that there are no early warning signs of glaucoma, a condition that can damage the eye's optic nerve and result in vision loss and blindness.
Fifty-one percent said that they have heard that people with diabetes are at increased risk of developing eye disease, but only 11 percent knew that there are usually no early warning signs. Only 16 percent had ever heard the term "low vision," which affects millions of Americans. Low vision is vision loss that standard eyeglasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery cannot correct, making everyday tasks difficult to do. Simple tasks like reading the mail, watching TV, shopping, cooking, and writing become challenging.
Hispanic respondents reported the lowest access to eye health information, knew the least about eye health, and were the least likely to have their eyes examined among all racial/ethnic groups participating in the survey. Forty-one percent of Hispanics reported that they had not seen or heard anything about eye health or disease in the last year, compared with 28 percent of Asians, 26 percent of African-Americans, and 16 percent of Caucasians.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued two new question-and-answer guides for providing technical assistance for employers and veterans on workplace issues affecting veterans with service-connected disabilities.
The new guide for employers explains how protections for veterans with service-connected disabilities differ under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). The document further describes how the ADA in particular applies to recruiting, hiring, and accommodating veterans with service-connected disabilities. The EEOC enforces Title I of the ADA, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments. The U.S. Department of Labor enforces USERRA, which applies to the reemployment of veterans with and without service-connected disabilities.
The second publication answers questions that veterans with service-connected disabilities may have about the protections they are entitled to when they seek to return to their former jobs or look to find their first, or new, civilian jobs. The document also explains changes or adjustments that veterans may need, because of their injuries, to apply for, or perform, a job, or to enjoy equal access to the workplace.
NPN is proud to support our friends at The Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center with their Fifth Annual SoHo Art Auction on Wednesday, March12, 2008, from 6-9 p.m. at Poltrona Frau, 145 Wooster Street (between Princeand Houston). All proceeds will support the Mental Health Project's advocacy for low-income and homeless New Yorkers with mental illness.
The Mental Health Project helps low-income New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities break the devastating cycle of homelessness, hospitalization and incarceration and regain stability and independence.To find the people who need them most, The Mental Health Project goes to jails, psychiatric units,and shelters. They focus on essentials such as food, housing, medical care, and disability benefits. They work to discover gaps in the safety net and educate.organize, and litigate to close them.
Contributing artists include Richard Serra, Nan Goldin, Anders Goldfarb, Dina Bursztyn, Eric Pelka, Christopher Colvin, Kate Temple, Michael Lorenzini, Kate Temple, Laura Lienhard, and many more.
Preview Art and Bid Online You know you don't have to be a New Yorker to bid on this art work.
Learn about NPN's similar project with our ArtWorks : Creative Industries Project where we are exploring ahead-of-the-curve business creation for artists with disabilities with new concepts in microloan funding and creative and sustaining use of the Social Security work incentives to fund self-employment for artists with disabilities. We are learning that art can offer significant opportunity for self-support for people with disabilities.
As part of U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt's focus on prevention, HHS Assistant Secretary for Aging Josefina G. Carbonell has announced participation in a demonstration designed to help seniors stay healthy. Nine Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) programs and an Administration on Aging (AoA) Older Americans Act Information and Referral (I&R) program will participate in the Medicare Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration.
The CMS Medicare Senior Risk Reduction Demonstration is designed to evaluate whether health promotion and disease prevention programs currently offered by national private insurers and employers can be delivered by the Medicare program to encourage beneficiaries to engage in healthy lifestyles and practices that can help them maintain and improve their health and reduce the need for health care services for preventable illnesses, injuries, or complications.
The U.S. Administration on Aging has informed the National PASS Network of its publication of the HHS Strategic Plan FY 2007-2012. This document provides a comprehensive overview of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service's priorities and activities for the next five years, and highlights the significant role the U.S. Administration on Aging is playing within the department to improve the health and well-being of older people and their family caregivers.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has told NPN this morning that the agency has released a new health literacy tool for people who serve older adults. The Quick Guide to Health Literacy and Older Adults is designed to provide useful strategies and suggestions to professionals who work with older adults to help bridge the communication gap between professionals and older adults.
In a national assessment of health literacy, only three percent of the older adults surveyed were found to be proficient in health literacy. Persons with limited health literacy have more adverse health outcomes including less frequent use of preventive services, higher hospitalization rates, and more emergency room visits. For older Americans, difficulties with health literacy can complicate already challenging health problems since as many as 80 percent of older Americans have at least one chronic disease.
20% of Americans cannot afford health care, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced on Tuesday (November 26) the members appointed to the Department of Health and Human Services' new Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. This committee coordinates efforts within the department to combat autism spectrum disorder through research, screening, intervention, and education. Secretary Leavitt says the committee will facilitate the efficient and effective exchange of information on autism activities among member agencies, and coordinate autism-related programs and initiatives. NPN is glad to see the federal goverment and Secretary Leavitt moving ahead on this important work to help families of children struggling with Autism.
"This important committee will play a key role in coordinating autism research, services, and education related to autism spectrum disorder," Secretary Leavitt said. "I'm pleased that its members bring to the committee a wide range and great depth of expertise, including research and program administration, advocacy and personal experience with the condition."
Authorized under the Combating Autism Act of 2006, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee advises the HHS Secretary and the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Secretary Leavitt delegated the authority to establish the committee to the NIH, which designated its National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to lead this activity.
The committee chair is Thomas R. Insel, M.D., director of NIMH who noted "The committee's first priority will be to develop a strategic plan for autism research that can guide public and private investments to make the greatest difference for families struggling with autism,"
HHS is active in fostering research and making the results available to aid people with autism. Among the activities:
• NIH funding and expertise support the Autism Centers of Excellence program, which the agency launched after the Combating Autism Act was passed, to seek the causes of autism and new treatments for the disorder.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports a multi-state collaborative study to help identify factors that put children at risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and other developmental disabilities. The five-year study, called SEED (Study to Explore Early Development), is currently enrolling participants.
CDC has reported findings from the first and largest summary of autism prevalence data from multiple U.S. communities. These findings, which found autism spectrum disorders in approximately one in 150 children in these communities, was reported by the Autism and Development Disabilities Monitoring Network, which was designed to provide more consistent and reliable estimates.
For additional info on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and notices and activities of upcoming meetings go to this website.
Last week, just in time for Veterans Day, came the news about how our country is really doing when it comes to honoring our veterans. According to a report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington DC, veterans make up 11% of the adult population but they make up over 25% of the homeless population.
It's not like us old Vets didn't see it coming. On these pages as far back as Christmas, 2004, NPN has been commenting on what we are doing to vets (check our Veterans Issues page out). I'm not clairvoyant, it just as a Vietnam veteran I have seen this happen to many times before. You just kind of shake your head in disbelief and wonder what President Bush and the Congress are thinking. Looks like there are some things we just never learn as a country.
Homelessness is a symptom of a system failure. In the case of military veterans, the failing system is the VA and the so called veteran's readjustment programs. The system is broken; has been for several decades. The job programs really don't really work and never have. The veteran's preference for employment that are really not preferences at all but a vehicles for discrimination (if organizations actively work to get around the preferences, it's discrimination).
The way the Iraq War is being fought will virtually insure that many vets will have to deal with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorders or traumatic brain injuries. You know that's a lifetime challenge. American politicians are famous for talking about what they are gonna do, but short on what they really do. In the end the ones who are really pay is the vets. Many disabled vets will pay the individual costs of war all their life. When you don't have a job, no promising prospect of getting one and you have no place to live and no place eat in but the soup kitchens, we have a word for it in the US: homeless. Kind of not what we expected when the US Army told us to "be all you can be". It's a national disgrace.
The 2008 Mobility Planning Services (MPS) Institute will take place from April 21-24, 2008 in Washington, D.C. MPS brings together teams of leaders from the disability community and transportation industry to share information and strategies to improve access to transportation services in their communities. Registration deadline is December 21, 2007. Registration materials.
Law for Hunting Fugitives is Stripping Survival Funds from Elderly, Poor and Disabled
Today NPN received a report from the Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center critical of the Social Security Administration for terminating the benefits of thousands of elderly, disabled, and poor Americans under the pretext of law enforcement. Thanks Bill.
In a new report entitled Social Insecurity; How the Social Security Administration's "Fugitive Felon Program" Harms Disabled, Retired and Poor Americans Without Aiding Law Enforcement, the Mental Health Project (MHP) finds that the Fugitive Felon Program ("FFP"), which is supposed to help police arrest wanted fugitives, is having the perverse effect of leaving thousands of retired and disabled people destitute and desperate.
Under the FFP, the Social Security Administration suspends the benefits of people who appear to have outstanding felony warrants or probation or parole violations, based on a crude computer match.
“This misguided policy is only making our neediest citizens more vulnerable” said Bill Lienhard, Director of the Mental Health Project at the Urban Justice Center and an author of the report. “It is clear that the Social Security Administration is denying benefits to people who are not wanted by the police and who aren’t running from the law. By stripping them of subsistence benefits – that cover medicine, food and rent – the government is throwing their lives into a tailspin,” he stated.
Social Insecurity finds that the Fugitive Felon Program often suspends benefits of individuals whom the police have no interest in arresting. Since the program began in 1996, SSA has identified over 300,000 “fugitives” who were receiving benefits – but only 13.6% have been arrested.
“Law enforcement officials seek out and arrest only a handful of the individuals receiving SSI, disability, or retirement benefits who have outstanding warrants,” said Jennifer J. Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy in the Mental Health Project. “The other 260,000 recipients lose their benefits after law enforcement decides not to apprehend them. This policy has done nothing to make our streets safer. It has only had drastic effects on destitute and elderly individuals,” she stated.
The Social Security Administration also suspends the benefits of people who have no outstanding violations due to a severely flawed database matching system. SSA often suspends an individual’s benefits if the identifying information in warrants only loosely matches their own records.
In one instance, a New York City resident was named the subject of outstanding warrants in Massachusetts until his lawyers determined that the person named was a woman with a different Social Security number. Separately, a woman in Nevada had her retirement benefits suspended on a 34-year-old warrant – that was intended for a man living in New York City.
The biggest victims of the FFP are recipients with severe mental illness. In one study, nearly 60% of the recipients whose benefits were suspended suffered from severe mental disabilities, including mental retardation and schizophrenia.
“It is virtually impossible to regain these benefits once they are stopped,” said Lienhard. “For many poor, elderly and disabled people, becoming ensnared in the federal government’s fugitive felony program is devastating. The bureaucratic obstacles to reclaiming benefits are virtually impossible to overcome,” he stated.
In December 2005, in the case of Fowlkes v. Adamec, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that SSA’s suspension of benefits on the basis of a felony warrant, without any inquiry as to whether the recipient was actually “fleeing” prosecution or incarceration, was illegal. Following the Fowlkes decision, SSA announced that it would stop suspending or denying benefits on the basis of an outstanding felony warrant in New York, Vermont, and Connecticut – yet the majority of the country is still subject to its policy.
In light of the continuing impacts SSA’s policy is having across the country, the Urban Justice Center’s report recommends:
• The Social Security Administration should apply the Appeals Court ruling to the entire country and suspend benefits only if people are actually fleeing from justice;
• The Social Security Administration should refine its data-matching system to guard against mistakes and identity theft;
• The Social Security Administration should help people obtain information about alleged warrants and violations.
Here is a copy of the full report.
Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon H. Mansfield announced today the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will convene a "consensus conference" with the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health to improve the designs and methodologies all three agencies will use in future research studies regarding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The date/ location of the conference has not been confirmed.
SSA announced on Wednesday, October 17 that the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) increases for next year will increase Social Security and SSI benefit programs by 2.3 percent. In 2008, the average SSDI monthly check for a worker who is disabled will be $1004, up from $981 in 2007. The Federal Benefit Rate (FBR) for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will rise next year to $637 a month for an individual, from $623, and to $956 for a couple from $934.
Several work-incentive related provisions are also indexed to the CPI that is the basis for federal COLA adjustments and will rise. The "SGA level" that indicates so-called "substantial work" earnings has been raised to $940 per month. People who are disabled because of blindness have a higher threshold of $1,570 in 2008.
The amount of earned income that indicates a trail-work-period "service month" is up in the coming year to $670. The trial-work period is 9 "service months" spread over a 5-year period and permits an individual to test their ability to work without losing SSDI benefits.
Students with disabilities on SSI will now be able to deduct significant earnings under the Student Earned Income Exclusion, excluding the first $1,550 of earned income in a month up to $6,240 in 2008 when they work.
Fact sheet is available from SSA
© Daniel Scarborough, 2007
The Administration on Aging (AoA) recently posted on its web site an Excel Workbook with the 2006 population estimates for the older population of each county in the US. The data was tabulated by AoA from the latest Census Bureau population estimates. Data on various age groups is presented.
Also, AoA recently launched its online AGing Integrated Database (AGID) system. With AGID, users may generate tables from four key AoA funded surveys and AoA program information systems as well as data on population characteristics from the Census Bureau,. The system allows users to produce customized tables in a step-by-step non-technical process and output the results in print or spreadsheet form. Users can also build customized state-level tables from multiple databases.
A recent report on an investigation and audit of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Supplemental Security Income(SSI) program by the agency's Office of Inspector General (IG) was released in August. The IG review looked to see if SSA had properly identified and resolved underpayments on prior SSI records. Underpayment means that SSA owes the SSI recipient SSI payments because the “amount due is greater than amount paid”. Additionally, underpayments are used to offset any SSI overpayments.
Generally, SSI underpayments are the result of some non-medical change like unearned or earned income or changes with the living arrangement of the person who is disabled. Social Security regulations and agency POMS instructions call for underpayment to be paid to the SSI recipient in the month after the underpayment is discovered by SSA. That seems to be a problem though, according to the study, SSA rarely does this follow through needed to make these underpayments.
Why is there so little follow through on underpayments? SSA rules say that underpayments must be handled by the local SSA office to make sure that the SSI underpayments are paid. This makes sense since the local office is the entity responsible for calculating SSI payments but there is little oversightover the process. The problem is while overpayments are collected with enthusiasm, the same zeal does not translate to paying out underpayments. This could be because of staff shortages at local SSA offices. The IG report says that local SSA offices did not identify and resolve in the surveyed group 79.3% of the time. Underpayments are just not paid to the individual unless they initiate some pro-active self advocacy or representation.
Most people with disabilities who get receive SSI rely on SSA to get it right. These recipients of SSI are after all severely disabled.
© Daniel Scarborough, 2007
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
National Disability Employment Awareness Month is an opportunity to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of Americans with disabilities and to underscore our Nation's commitment to advancing employment opportunities for all our citizens.
Americans with disabilities strengthen our country's workforce, and their achievements help keep our Nation the world's economic leader. Landmark reforms such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 have helped to ensure that individuals with disabilities are better able to engage in productive work and participate fully in the life of our Nation. It is important that we continue to expand on these opportunities for Americans with disabilities by eliminating the barriers and false perceptions that hinder them from joining the workforce. By enhancing the workplace environment for people with disabilities, employers can help provide access to jobs that allow these individuals to demonstrate their potential and realize their dreams.
Since 2001, my New Freedom Initiative has helped promote the full participation of people with disabilities in all areas of society, including education, training, and employment Programs such as "Ticket to Work" and services at One-Stop Career Centers have helped improve access to employment training and placement services for individuals who want to work. Throughout the Federal Government, we have worked to improve access to jobs for individuals with disabilities and to promote greater inclusiveness in the workforce. Individuals and employers can learn more about the Federal Government's disability-related programs by visiting DisabilityInfo.gov. We will continue to build on the progress that has been made for individuals with disabilities and will work to ensure that our Nation remains a place of opportunity for all Americans.
To recognize the contributions of Americans with disabilities and to encourage all citizens to ensure equal opportunity in the workforce, the Congress (36 U.S.C. 121) has designated October of each year as "National Disability Employment Awareness Month."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 2007 as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. I call upon Government officials, labor leaders, employers, and the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have here unto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Secretary Mike Leavitt of the US Dept of Health and Human Services has started writing a blog. It's not clear if this is an official government publication. The Secretary shares his observations and 'hopes to open conversation about health and the related challenges" that face the nation.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Ways and Means Health Subcommittee today passed HR 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007(September 19, 2007).
The bill, which has already passed the Education and Labor Committee and has been referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee, was approved 10 to 3.
The measure requires group health plans and group health insurers to establish parity with all mental illnesses and substance-related disorders benefits with medical and surgical benefits.
Specifically, the bill amends section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act, and section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require equity in the provision of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits under group health plans.
