Elizabeth Warren proposes to eliminate waiting periods to make it easier for disabled people to access benefits under Social Security Disability Insurance and Medicare.
Current law imposes delays before obtaining benefits of up to five months for Social Security and 12 months for Medicare. In a proposal released Thursday, she says that she’d get rid of them.
Warren’s plan also calls for phasing out — rather than immediately halting — Social Security disability benefits once the beneficiary returns to work, reducing them by $1 for every $2 earned above an inflation-indexed threshold of $2,110. Her plan would additionally expand the program’s maximum Supplemental Security Income benefit to the federal poverty level.
Her plan includes various other measures including protecting disabled people in prison by requiring jails to build accommodations.
According to a campaign official, Warren sought advice from various disability advocates, including former Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who was an original sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.