Combining help and work

Combining help and work

Two constants in our culture are the value Americans place on work and the generosity they show toward the less fortunate.

And so, it is, well, unAmerican, when programs designed to help the less fortunate also discourage people from seeking work.

Ohio is addressing one such anomaly with a program call the Medicaid Buy-In for Workers with Disabilities.

Society recognizes an obligation to provide health care coverage for the disabled. But until this program was approved by the Ohio General Assembly last year, disabled people who would have been able to maintain some level of employment risked losing their health coverage. The message that was being sent to those people was, if you want health coverage for yourself and your family, don’t even try to work.

The Medicaid Buy-In now allows disabled people to earn up to $26,000 a year without risking the loss of their Medicaid coverage. Above $15,600, a prorated premium is charged. Some people can make even more than $26,,000 and still qualify because various deductions are made to gross income.

Word is spreading

The Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services oversees the program, but various social service and government agencies are aware of how it works and can help eligible clients.

This program represents a common sense approach to balancing the needs of disabled individuals for uninterrupted health care coverage with the value that is added to society when more people are working.

The federal government should be doing everything it can to encourage states to find new ways of providing services, encouraging work and making people’s lives better.

This is just one success story in what should be a long line of successes.

No state or federal program should be structured in such a way that discourages people who need a helping hand from also doing what they can to help themselves and their families.