April 1991

Cover

 
  • "Living Benefits" for the Insured, Terminally Ill Client: A Remarkable New Resource with Tax, SSI, and Medicaid Implications

    Little-noticed outside of the AIDS service and advocacy community, an imaginative "viatical settlements" industry has emerged, offering accelerated benefits to terminally ill insureds with time-limited life expectancies (typically six months or less); this article discusses process of obtaining viatical settlements, as well as the tax, SSI, and Medicaid implications of such payments.

    By Thomas McCormack and David Petersen

  • Placing School Lunch and Breakfast Programs Back on the Advocacy Menu

    Under a little-publicized 1989 amendment to the National School Lunch Act, a school district may directly certify children of families receiving AFDC or food stamp benefits as "automatically eligible" for free lunches and breakfasts; this article describes how advocates in Philadelphia worked with the local school district to expand participation in these programs.

    By Paul Minorini and Jonathan Stein

  • Changes in OBRA-90 Affecting Medicaid Eligibility and Services for the Elderly and Disabled

    The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 contained numerous provisions affecting Medicaid eligibility and services for elderly and disabled people, including buy-in provisions, provisions affecting spousal impoverishment, and other coverage provisions.

    By Patricia Nemore of the National Senior Citizens Law Center

  • Employee Privacy Rights: The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988

    Enacted in response to employers' increased reliance on lie detector testing and mounting evidence of the poor reliability of such testing, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act broadly proscribes the use of lie detector testing as a condition of employment.

    By Maurice Emsellum of the National Employment Law Project