Currently, employed Oregonians with disabilities, face a tough choice. Medicaid healthcare and long-term services and supports (LTSS) provide the services we need to thrive and prosper. Yet, we can never take a pay raise, job promotion, or gather assets without risk of losing our benefits. Medicaid has arbitrary asset and income eligibility restrictions in place. These restrictions limit our ability to prosper through employment while maintaining good health. Data shows that these restrictions result in us, and our families, being exposed to significant financial and health disparities due to poverty. Systemic barriers suppress our financial and health security. We are seeking a legislative solution that creates health and employment equity for employed Oregonians with disabilities, on par with the same opportunities that able-bodied Oregonians enjoy. The proposed solution permits us to continue receiving Medicaid coverage while working so that we may choose careers that let us earn a steady income and allow us to live independently and with dignity.

We are proposing legislation to address this employment and health equity barrier once again during the 2023 Legislature Regular Session.

• This legislation will allow Oregonians with disabilities to work, maintain private insurance, and remain eligible for Medicaid coverage for healthcare and LTSS needs by changing the income eligibility to the Employed People with Disabilities program. It will allow us access to critical services and supports while maintaining all the benefits of employment. Our current asset cap is $5000.
• We are asking that Legislators empower the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) to expand the program that provides Medicaid to employed people with disabilities, including the coordination of benefits if that person has employer- sponsored coverage. This will eliminate the financial eligibility restrictions for our critical benefits.
• Other states have already implemented similar solutions, including Washington. Working individuals with disabilities still need access to Medicaid and receive services and supports that cannot be covered under commercial insurance. So, this legislation will follow suit with similar programs in other states.
• Last session’s Fiscal Impact Report put the cost of this legislation at $14.5M per year from the General Fund in a biennium. Importantly, passage would also spur more than $25M per year in Federal matching dollars each biennium as well, supporting nearly two-thirds of the cost at the Federal level.

The Disability Health & Employment Equity Coalition of Oregon is a group of stakeholders personally invested in the health and prosperity of the disability community. Medicaid and the Americans with Disabilities Act help people with disabilities but create a cycle of poverty and exclusion that contributes to poor health. Through state-level system and policy changes, we will strive to create equity in health and employment so the disability community can thrive and prosper in health and wealth.