An effort to expand Medicaid eligibility for elderly and disabled individuals got an extra push at the state Capitol Thursday.
HUSKY C is a kind of Medicaid that applies to Connecticut residents who are 65 years old and up, and/or who are blind or disabled. One issue is the program’s low income limits, which advocates said makes it extremely difficult to qualify for coverage.
That income threshold is far lower than other levels of Medicaid that the state offers.
East Haven resident Rick Famiglietti said he has dealt with Medicaid red tape for decades. He’s a wheelchair user as a result of a motorcycle accident in 1985, and said for years he had to spend down his income before Medicaid would pay anything.
“I got an associate's degree in mechanical engineering, which I could not use, because if I went to work, my spend down would just be higher,” he said.
‘This is discrimination’
Financial thresholds to qualify for HUSKY C are unfair to many people with disabilities across Connecticut, advocates said.
“For years, we've been coming up here saying, ‘this is discrimination.’” said Sheldon Toubman, a litigation attorney at Disability Rights Connecticut. “Something has to be done about it.”
Toubman said his workplace and Yale Medical legal partnership have brought a case on behalf of two people who they say are being discriminated against on the basis of disability because of their income, but noted it’s something that should also be addressed outside the courts.
Asset limits also an issue
Asset limits are also a unique eligibility factor to HUSKY C. That’s an issue the state legislature is looking to again remedy this session.
Under the Aging Committee’s bill, the increase would triple the current HUSKY C asset limits from $1,600 to $5,000 for a single person, and $2,400 to $7,500 for a married couple. Thursday morning, state lawmakers unanimously voted to move the bill out of committee.
Famiglietti, 61, said if he retires or decides to stop working, the reality is he won’t qualify for HUSKY C because of the current limits on assets and income.
“Why put all of these programs in to get people with disabilities to go back to school, go to work?” He asked. “Only to punish you when you stop working, either for retirement or because you have to. I don't understand why I worked for the last 26 years.”
Under the aging committee’s bill, by July 1, 2027, the DSS commissioner “has to file a report on the number of people eligible for the HUSKY C health program for the prior fiscal year, and any increased costs incurred by the state that are attributable to changes in the asset limits.”
Other bills addressing the asset limit issue are also being considered by lawmakers.
The Human Services Committee is considering a bill that would increase asset limits over five years, but to a higher amount. By 2031, the asset limits would be eliminated altogether.
The state Department of Social Services said in public testimony it could not support either bill in the Aging or Human Services committees, citing that the expansion would require “a significant amount of funding that is not contemplated in the Governor’s recommended budget.”
‘We work to save money’
Scott Masson and Lauren Traceski wrote in support of the bill this week. Both have an intellectual disability and say that the current asset limits are making life very challenging.
“While we work to save money for our weekly groceries and monthly rent, we constantly need to keep an eye on the very low asset limits and immediately spend down our money if we go over the limit. The penalty for being over the limit is the immediate loss of our benefits,” they wrote. “Saving for anything long-term like a small vacation or things that we need for our apartment is nearly impossible.”
Democratic Sen. Matt Lesser, who co-chairs the Human Services committee, added that over two-thirds of people with disabilities in Connecticut rely on the state's Medicaid program.
“We have to stand up and protect it,” Lesser said at the press conference.
“Even before the federal attacks on health care, we were not doing right by people with disabilities,” Lesser added. “It is overdue that we do something about HUSKY C income and asset limits, that we bring them up, because people with disabilities should not be second class citizens in this country.”
