Rep. Pete Sessions and I share one of life’s great joys: We both have a Down syndrome child in our families. Pete has taken his family’s special situation to heart in his Congressional work, serving as co-chairman of the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus and forming a district-wide working group to help coordinate government and non-profit resources for disabled children. So far, so good. Thanks for your work, Pete.
But taking a son’s disability to heart as an advocate is one thing. Leveraging one’s position for special treatment is another. In his recent newsletter, Sessions blasts healthcare insurance reform for everyone else, then goes on to announce his own rather more limited, rather more specialized, rather more focused heathcare insurance reform. It’’s a bill to get his son and my daughter more money:
As a result of my focus on the needs of individuals with disabilities, earlier this year I introduced legislation to help improve the financial status of people with special needs when a parent or gaurdian has passed away. Currently, disabled dependents who receive survivor annuity payments following the death of a parent or guardian are often disqualified from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and Medicaid programs based on “too high” income.
My legislation, H.R. 1599, would exempt survivor annuity payments from a disabled dependent’s income total, thereby enabling them to access additional funding without the penalty of losing government assistance. With additional funding options, parents of special needs children take one step closer to peace of mind that their child can be financially secure after their own passing.
That “too high” provision was put in by fiscally responsible members of Congress (when there were fiscally responsible members of Congress) to prevent the disabled heirs of people like me and Pete who receive Social Security survivor benefits from receiving other benefits they don’t need. Now Pete wants to do away with that cap so that his son (and my daughter) will receive every extra dollar of federal money that can be squeezed no matter what.
Meanwhile, Sessions says he is passionately concerned about the deficit – although he voted for the Bush prescription entitlement– and is vehemently against insurance reform for constituents who don’t happen to be his children. The latter includes our recently laid-off employees whose COBRA ran out two months ago, as well as our remaining employees whose insurance costs are soaring.
By the way, the bill is filed by the Congressional Research Service under the following terms: Social welfare, Medicaid, disability assistance, poverty and welfare assistance.