Tag: disabilities

Bills could help Missourians with disabilities advance their careers, get married

      Missourians living with disabilities could no longer have to reject raises and promotions, or even choose not to get married, in order to keep receiving needed state assistance, under legislation now awaiting the governor’s action.

Representative Melanie Stinnett (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Among legislation that was approved by the House and Senate last month was a provision to change the state’s Ticket to Work health insurance program within MO HealthNet.  It would increase the limit on how much a person can earn before they lose benefits under that program.  It would also not count up to $50,000 of a spouse’s income toward that limit.  

      Such state benefits provide to some Missourians with disabilities things like personal care attendants, medication, services, and equipment that allow them to have a job in the first place.  Those Missourians must sometimes reject raises or promotions because the changes in income would not offset the benefits they would lose. 

      Another provision would require state agencies to use an “employment first” policy, directing them to recruit and keep employees with disabilities and create competitive ways to integrate them into workforces.

      This legislation received broad, bipartisan support in both chambers.  In the House they were carried by Springfield Republican Melanie Stinnett.  She said legislators have been growing more aware of how state assistance programs designed to help Missourians are sometimes holding them back.

      “When we look at how this language in the current statute was impacting their ability to continue taking those raises or getting a new job in a new area, or in our communities we hear issues with workforce all the time and we’re wanting to do upskill training and we’re wanting to do all of these things to help people improve their skills and improve their earning potential but for individuals with disabilities we put a cap on that, and that is not what we want to be doing.  We want to allow individuals in our communities to work to their highest capacity and help them to thrive within their community.”

      “It’s something that’s been worked on for nearly 20 years and there are a lot of people that have worked on it year over year over year, and I’m really happy to be a part of the team to bring it across the finish line,” said Stinnett.

      Representative Bridget Walsh Moore (D-St. Louis) lives and works with a disability, and has long advocated for these changes.  She said these will yield, “immediate, tangible results that are going to benefit so many people.”

Representative Bridget Walsh Moore (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “We will have a different workforce by the end of this year.  This goes into effect in August.  By the end of the year … our workforce will look entirely different because these people can go after that promotion, apply for that new job, they can move up the ladder, now it’s worth it to go back to school and get that degree or my master’s because I’ll actually be able to get the job I want,” said Walsh Moore. 

      “This will have immediate results on the economy, immediate impact.  When you go from making 40-grand to 80 overnight you’re going to spend that money.  You’re either going to pay off debt, you’re going to get a  better place to live, you’re going to go out to eat more, you’re going to buy new clothes, whatever.  You’re going to spend that money.  When you’ve been told that you have to penny pinch for so long, that money’s going to end up immediately back in the economy, so it’s a double benefit to the state.  The state is only winning in this situation.”

      Stinnett is particularly excited about the provision to ease the limit on a spouse’s income, “So we’re not disincentivizing marriage for individuals with disabilities, which I think is really important.”

      About that provision Walsh Moore mentioned a childhood friend of hers who developed lupus. 

      “She is still living with her long-time boyfriend.  She couldn’t get married because she would lose her benefits because her boyfriend makes too much money but he can’t solely support her.  She could get married later this year.  That’s huge,” said Walsh Moore.  “You hear all the time of people divorcing so they can deal with medical issues – just divorcing on paper so that they can handle whatever disease has come into their life.  It’s awful.”

      Supporters of the employment first language said it was long overdue and would allow Missourians with disabilities to work to their fullest extent, which benefits the whole state.

      Stinnett said it is, “showing that Missouri really values individuals with disabilities in our workforce and wants them to have options for competitive, integrated employment within their communities.”

      Walsh Moore, who had advocated for this legislation since being elected in 2020 and said it has been proposed long before that, said, “It’s very exciting to finally see it done … it didn’t get a hearing every year but every year it did, no one has ever testified against it and no one has ever voted against it.”

      Governor Mike Parson (R) has until July 14 to act on Senate Bill 106 and Senate Bill 45, both of which contain these provisions. He could sign them into law or veto them, or let them become law without his action.  If they become law, the provisions would become effective on August 28.

House votes to extend opportunities for more jobs, greater salaries to persons with disabilities

The House has voted to expand access to job opportunities and greater salaries to Missourians with disabilities by passing legislation that, backers say, will let those people simply live their lives.

Representative Melanie Stinnett (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Bills 970 and 971 make changes to the state’s Ticket to Work health insurance program within MO HealthNet.  The key provisions increase the limit to how much a person can earn before they would lose benefits under Ticket to Work and disregard up to $50,000 of a spouse’s income, relative to that limit.  It will also direct state agencies to have policies to recruit and keep employees with disabilities and create competitive ways to integrate them into workforces.

      The bills are carried by Representative Melanie Stinnett (R-Springfield), whose career in healthcare and as a speech-language pathologist has included a great deal of focus on serving the disabled community.  She said she is honored to sponsor this legislation.

      “It provides language that tells individuals with disabilities that we value them as important members of our community.  It allows these individuals to enjoy the opportunity to enjoy competitive, integrated employment by decreasing barriers imposed by government,” said Stinnett.

      She said these changes address outdated statutes that might have made sense in their time, but set limits that today are far too low. 

“The restrictions we have in place limited them from being able to utilize the degrees that they had and the skills and the trades that they had in our communities in an effective way, and with today’s work force crunch, too, we certainly don’t want to be limiting our workforce,” said Stinnett.

      The legislation has been offered in the House for about eight years.  One person who has carried it throughout that time, Representative Sarah Unsicker (D-Shrewsbury), said individuals with disabilities have Missouri’s lowest unemployment rate, largely due to discrimination and lack of accommodation and understanding.

Representative Bridget Walsh Moore (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “Disability is a natural part of the human condition that affects everybody at some point in their lives, some sooner than others.  The existence of a disability should not stop somebody from working and living to their fullest capacity,” said Unsicker.  “There are people right now with master’s degrees who cannot work because of services they need just to get out of bed and survive and be physically able to meet the day even if they are mentally able to do incredible work.  This will help them be taxpayers to the fullest extent of their ability.  This will help people get jobs.”

      Representative Bridget Walsh Moore (D-St. Louis) is a Missourian living and working with a disability and has also for several years sponsored this legislation.  She said some people in the disabled community choose not to get married because if they do while the current limits are in place, they will lose their health benefits under Ticket to Work.

In her own life, said Walsh Moore, “If anything were to happen to me, my husband makes over $60,000.  We would receive nothing from the state, zero support, and $60,000 for the two of us plus our child is not enough, especially with any medical needs I might have,” said Walsh Moore.

      She said individuals need the benefits provided by that coverage to function daily, to hold jobs, and to live with dignity.  She said she often thinks of a friend of hers who is in her 20s and has a master’s degree.

“She had to go to her job and say ‘Cap my salary at 40 grand.’  They wanted to pay her almost double that and she had to say no because even 80-thousand won’t make up enough to cover the assistance [she needs].  She is in a powered wheelchair so she has someone who helps her in morning and night, in getting in and getting out of bed and all that, and it’s not enough.”

“Missouri is losing out twice.  They’re losing out on her income tax, and that’s another 40-grand that would have gone into our economy,” said Walsh Moore.

      She said the provisions aimed at state agencies are intended to create a system that can be a model outside of government.

Representative Sarah Unsicker (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “As the system stands, we have sheltered workshops and we have full competitive employment and no bridge in between.  What this would do is basically set up the state as a model employer.  Basically, we will figure out a program ourselves.  All state departments will hire people with disabilities.  We’ll kind of work out the kinks, figure out the program ourselves, and then we can sell it to corporate America,” Walsh Moore explained.  “A lot of corporations I’ve talked to are very interested.  They like the idea, they just don’t know what that looks like, and so we’re taking that burden off of them and saying we’ll do it first and we’ll figure it out.”

      Stinnett, who is in her first year in the House, said this was one of the first issues she asked about taking up. 

      “It’s something that’s come up in my work life outside of this building and was a really important thing to me that I found disability legislation that I could get across the finish line that would make a difference for our everyday Missourians living with disabilities.”

      The House voted 151-0 to send the legislation to the Senate, and has amended it to other bills.