Washington, D.C. (February xx, 2026) – The National Organization on Disability (NOD), representing the nearly 70 million Americans with Disabilities, is proud to endorse the Child Disability Benefits Fairness Act, introduced by Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI).
This legislation resolves a critical flaw in workforce accessibility for people with disabilities, removing the impossible choice of maintaining health coverage or pursuing financial independence. By closing a long-standing loophole that jeopardizes Medicaid eligibility, the Child Disability Benefits Fairness Act guarantees that people with disabilities can preserve the health care they need to live, work, and thrive in their communities.
“People with disabilities have already had to overcome a workforce that often was not created for them,” said NOD President Beth Sirull. “By removing these structural barriers to employment and self-sufficiency, people with disabilities will continue to excel in meaningful careers and lead fulfilling lives. NOD is proud to support this important bill, and eager to see it become law.”
Founded in 1982, NOD is a national, bipartisan organization building a society where people of all abilities can find work, earn a fair wage, and advance in their careers. NOD is committed to realizing a world where every person with a disability has access to meaningful employment and thriving workplaces that recognize and value their talents.
The Childhood Disability Benefits Fairness Act
The text: To amend title XVI of the Social Security Act to treat certain individuals receiving child’s insurance benefits as receiving supplemental security income benefits for purposes of determining Medicaid eligibility.
Title XVI of the Social Security Act refers to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, a federal, needs-based benefit providing cash payments for food, clothing, and shelter to low-income aged, blind, or disabled individuals, funded by general tax revenues, not Social Security taxes, requiring strict income and asset limits.
Child’s Insurance Benefits are Social Security benefits paid to certain adult children with disabilities based on a parent’s work record, rather than their own earnings. To be eligible, an individual must have a qualifying disability that began before age 22, be unmarried (with limited exceptions), and have a parent who is retired, disabled, or deceased and eligible for Social Security benefits. CIB is intended to provide income support to adults with lifelong or early-onset disabilities who are unlikely to work enough to qualify for Social Security on their own.
What This Bill Is Doing: Under current law, child’s insurance benefits (CIB) paid under Social Security are treated as countable income for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) purposes. This means if someone receives CIB, those payments can push their income above the SSI eligibility threshold, even if they are otherwise poor and disabled. This is key because many states use SSI eligibility to grant automatic Medicaid eligibility, meaning individuals who receive CIB benefits can lose access to Medicaid, despite being poor or disabled.
This bill would ensure that certain individuals who receive CIB would not have those assets counted against SSI caps, and therefore would not affect their Medicaid eligibility.
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About the National Organization on Disability (NOD)
The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is committed to increasing employment opportunities and fostering inclusive work environments for the millions of Americans with disabilities. NOD offers a suite of employment solutions tailored to anticipate and meet leading companies’ workforce needs and has helped some of the world’s most recognized brands be more competitive in today’s global economy by building or enriching their disability inclusion programs.
For more information about NOD, visit www.nod.org.