Effects of health care benefits for new Disability Insurance beneficiaries:

Under current law, most Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries are not eligible for Medicare until 24 months after their eligibility for cash assistance. Many therefore lack health insurance during a period when this might improve their medical condition. To assess the effects of providing immediate access to health benefits to newly entitled SSDI beneficiaries who have no health care coverage, the Social Security Administration developed and funded the Accelerated Benefits Demonstration (AB). The study is especially timely given current discussions about reforming the health care system to expand health insurance coverage. New SSDI beneficiaries without health insurance were recruited by telephone and randomly assigned to three groups: (1) the AB group, which received access to a generous health benefit plan, (2) the AB Plus group, which received the same health benefit plan as well as medical case management and services to help them return to work, and (3) a control group. The study includes approximately 2,000 new SSDI beneficiaries without health insurance, about equally divided between men and women. The most common types of primary impairments were mental health (22%), musculoskeletal (19.4%), diseases of the nervous system (16.8%), diseases of the circulatory system (11.6%), and neoplasms (8.2%). About 70% of sample members indicated they had an unmet medical need at the time they entered the study. Reflecting lower insurance rates in the South, nearly half of the sample came from the South. This presentation will describe effects of the intervention through the first six months after random assignment.