[Nfbmo] FW: Blind Pension Health Care

[Fred Olver]

Gary, very interesting. How about this idea. Those individuals who are 
receiving the Blind Pention often have other complicating medical issues 
related to health which may keep them from working. As a result they may 
have to deal with other problems sometimes as a result of blindness and 
sometimes congenital in nature. glaucoma, diabetes Kidney problems cerebral 
palsi epilepsi etc. These people need this coverage because of the possible 
extra out-of-pocket expenses which they may incure as a result of this 
effort?

Fred Olver
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Wunder" <gwunder at earthlink.net>
To: "'nfbmo list'" <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2013 6:26 PM
Subject: [Nfbmo] FW: Blind Pension Health Care


>
>
>
>
> From: Gene Coulter [mailto:escoulter at centurytel.net]
> Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2013 12:36 AM
> To: Gary Wunder
> Cc: sbwright95 at att.net
> Subject: Blind Pension Health Care
>
>
>
> (Please distribute to leaders list)
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> Thursday evening the Governmental Affairs committee met by conference 
> call. As a result of that the Chair, Shelia Wright, asked  some of us to 
> write the leaders to inform you of what is going on and to ask for your 
> input. We again have to deal with changes to the medical coverage on the 
> Blind Pension program. This year’s proposed changes are different than we 
> faced last year. Some people would continue on as before (but not very 
> many); a second group would have to pay premiums of about $14 to $120; and 
> a third group would no longer get medical coverage at all. If your income 
> is over 150% of the Federal Poverty level but not more  than 300% of the 
> Federal Poverty level  you would be required to pay a premium and over 
> 300% you would no longer have state medical coverage and would depending 
> on your circumstances either enroll  in whatever parts of Medicare you don’t 
> have if eligible, get private insurance or  enroll in a health insurance 
> pool.
>
> Here are the figures for a single person (income figures are approxmate 
> but within a dollar or two and change annually)
>
> income of $1436 or less no premium
>
> income from $1436.01 to  $2872.00 pays premiums
>
> and income of $2872.01 or more not eligible.
>
> For a couple
>
> income of $1938.00 no premium
>
> $1938.01 to $3877.00 pays premiums
>
> $3877.01 and up not eligible for medical coverage.
>
> As I understand it the blind pension is countable income for this purpose 
> and there are no exclusions from income.
>
> The bills we are concerned about are HB11 which sets the amounts of the 
> premium (I’ve pasted the pertnant section at the end of this message) and 
> HB700 which authorizes the change. The important bill is HB700 as without 
> the authorization it gives  the premium structure  in HB11 cannot take 
> effect.
>
> We realize that most no one wishes this legislation to pass but there are 
> a lot of things working against us. The primary thing is that the 
> provisions requiring are premium payment and determining eligibility are 
> equivilant to the most liberal provisions for any group eligible for 
> medicaid in the state. Therefore, a legislators arguement is why should 
> blind persons have it better than anyone else as we are still giving them 
> the best treatment of any group? So, while there is no way we can or would 
> support this  change as an organization we need some compelling argument 
> to testify against it. That is where each of you and your memberships come 
> in. We need  folks to put their  collective heads together and  study this 
> thoroughly and come up with compelling arguements to defeat this. Time is 
> of the essence as hearings begin this week. Here are the only three things 
> the committee came up that I recall and I am not sure if they are 
> compelling.
>
> 1. Persons who  have Blind pension health coverage in many cases didn’t 
> take out  Part B of Medicare as it has a monthly premium because they had 
> BP medical coverage. If they were to have to enroll now they could face a 
> penalty for late enrollment of up to 10% for each year they were eligible 
> and failed to enroll which could run into hundreds of dollars a month.
>
> 2. Loosing coverage now after the state provided it for 46 years just isn’t 
> right. People who  have been on the coverage  for decades have budgetted 
> their  in many sparse incomes  carefully and having to pay either  a 
> Medicaid, Medicare, or private premium could break them.
>
> 3. The actual cost to the state might be more than is saved as some folks 
> may have to go into nursing homes or use the E R as their primary health 
> care.
>
> So, please provide examples and other problems you see with the bill 
> because as of right now the committee has some discomfort with a full out 
> assault on the bill.
>
> My personal feelings are that they should scrap the bill and just goahead 
> and expand Medcaid up to the full amount authorzed by the Federal 
> government, but that is just one man’s opinion
>
> Please write quickly,
>
> Gene
>
>
>
> Here is the section of the authorzation bill providing for premium 
> payments
>
> HB11
>
>
>
>
>
> Section 11.600. To the Department of Social Services
>
> 2
>
> For the MO HealthNet Division
>
> 3
>
> For the purpose of funding healthcare benefits for non-Medicaid eligible
>
> 4
>
> blind individuals who receive the Missouri Blind Pension cash
>
> 5
>
> grant, provided that individuals under this section shall pay the
>
> 6
>
> following premiums to be eligible to receive such services: zero
>
> 7
>
> percent on the amount of a family’s income which is less that 150
>
> 8
>
> percent of the federal poverty level; four percent on the amount of
>
> 9
>
> a family’s income which is less than 185 percent on the amount of
>
> 10
>
> the federal poverty level but greater than 150 percent of the federal
>
> 11
>
> poverty level; eight percent of the amount on a family’s income
>
> 12
>
> which is less than 225 percent of the federal poverty level but
>
> 13
>
> greater than 185 percent of the federal poverty level: fourteen
>
> 14
>
> percent on the amount of a family’s income which is less than 300
>
> 15
>
> percent of the federal poverty level but greater than 225 percent of
>
> 16
>
> the federal poverty level not to exceed five percent of total income.
>
> 17
>
> Families with an annual income of more than 300 percent of the
>
> 18
>
> federal poverty level are ineligible for this program
>
> 19
>
> From General Revenue Fund. ......................................... 
> $21,489,941
>
> 20
>
> From Blind Pension Premium Fund. ................................... 
> 3,632,576
>
> 21
>
> Total. ............................................................ 
> $25,122,517
>
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