The Arc of the United States Looks Forward to Swift Enactment of the Bipartisan Family Opportunity Act

ARC of the United States
Thursday, 8 February 2001

Washington, D.C. -- The Arc of the United States, with its 140,000 members and approximately 1,000 state and local chapters nationwide, congratulates the sponsors of the Family Opportunity Act and looks forward to its swift enactment by a family-friendly Congress. We applaud the leadership of Senators Grassley (R-Iowa) and Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Representatives Sessions (R-Texas) and Waxman (D-Calif.) in sending the message that helping families of children with disabilities is a bipartisan goal.

The Arc represents over seven million children and adults with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities and their families. Many, many of these children need access to health related supports so they can continue to live at home with their families. The Family Opportunity Act is extremely important to them because it would provide the opportunity for middle-class parents of children with disabilities to try and provide the best health care possible for their children by buying into the Medicaid program if they cannot get what they need through their job.

This bill had tremendous bipartisan support in the last session of Congress. The Arc strongly urges the more than 200 Republican and Democratic Members of the House and Senate, who co-sponsored the Family Opportunity Act last year, to support it again and work actively for its enactment at an early date. We encourage all new Members of Congress to show their support for families with children with disabilities and sign-on. We also urge President Bush and his Administration to support this very family-friendly legislation – that will help keep families healthy, intact, and working.

Families across the country provided tremendous grassroots support for this bill last year and are gearing up to work for its swift passage.

The Family Opportunity Act would allow states to offer middle-income families of children with disabilities the option of buying-into Medicaid. Currently, these children are ineligible for Medicaid because their families make too much money. Because of this restriction, they are often un-insured or underinsured because health insurance is not available through an employer, is too expensive, or offers a very limited number of benefits. In addition, parents are often forced to remain in dead-end jobs to keep health insurance or forced to decline employment in order to access federal health benefits. Giving parents the option of buying into Medicaid and paying on a sliding scale basis would provide children with disabilities in these families access to the full range of Medicaid services. This provision, along with a demonstration program that would allow states to cover young children with "potentially severe disabilities," promises improved overall health, the prevention of future disabilities, and a better chance for these children to live full and healthy lives with their families in their home communities where they belong.

The Arc believes that this legislation takes a pragmatic and responsible approach to offering families potential access to Medicaid's comprehensive benefits package.

- It is a state option, one that we strongly hope most states will choose.

- It requires parents to pay premiums for this coverage on a sliding scale based on their income.

- It requires parents to take employer-sponsored family coverage (if available) but allows them to buy into Medicaid to "supplement" the employer benefit package.

- It breaks the link between forced poverty and Medicaid, and it builds on the bipartisan work incentives law enacted two years ago.

The Arc urges Congress to pass the Family Opportunity Act of 2001 this year.

For more information, or to contact ARC of the United States, see their website at: www.thearc.org