WSU News Archive

By Doug Nadvornick, WSU Spokane

Jae Kennedy

Elizabeth Blodgett

SPOKANE, Wash. - Washington State University Spokane Professor Jae Kennedy is using one of medicine’s most prominent stages to talk about what he views as a little-known benefit of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

 

Kennedy - a professor of health policy and administration - and co-author Elizabeth Blodgett write in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine that the healthcare reform law will reduce the pressures of growth in public disability assistance programs.

 

The article contends that people apply for two large federal disability programs - Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) - in part because of the guarantee of medical coverage. Because of that, Kennedy and Blodgett say enrollment in the programs has increased substantially during the last two decades, driving up their costs to unsustainable levels.

 

The authors argue that, though the federal government has tried to nudge people off the federal programs into private sector jobs, many are loath to make the leap when there are no guarantees that they’ll be able to secure private health insurance.

The ACA will help by offering new insurance options for disabled workers.

 "It achieves this by several policy changes that benefit different subgroups among people with disabilities,” the authors write.

 

For example, the law allows people younger than 26 to stay on their parents’ health insurance. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. The law eliminates lifetime medical benefit caps. These and other provisions, such as premium and cost-sharing credits, they argue, will improve coverage and affordability for disabled workers.

"Consequently, fewer will need to rely on public insurance obtained through disability benefits,” write Kennedy and Blodgett. In addition, "As the private insurance market becomes more accessible and affordable for people with disabilities, they will be able to afford to work for smaller firms that do not currently offer insurance.”
 
Despite the new options, Kennedy doubts enrollees will make a mad rush away from the government programs to private insurance. But he says some will return to work and other disabled workers will stay on the job, and that will ease the upward pressure on enrollment in disability benefits programs. That in itself, he says, is an important function of the law.

 

Blodgett is a graduate of WSU’s health policy and administration program. She is pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina.

 

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Contacts:
Jae Kennedy, WSU Health Policy and Administration, 509-368-6971, jjkennedy@wsu.edu
Doug Nadvornick, WSU Health Sciences, 509-358-7540, doug.nadvornick@wsu.edu

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