October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, so I want to talk about a trap that keeps capable people from working more.

Picture a Billings woman with a disability who works part time and gets the personal care that lets her live in her own home through Medicaid. Her boss offers her more hours and a raise. If she says yes, she could earn just enough to lose the Medicaid coverage that pays for her care. No private insurance plan covers that kind of help.

So she turns down the raise. She caps her own hours. She keeps her savings small on purpose. She would rather work more. The math leaves her no better choice.

Montana already has the fix

Since 2010, Montana has offered Medicaid for Workers with Disabilities. It lets working Montanans with disabilities keep their Medicaid coverage by paying a small, income-based share of the cost, instead of losing coverage when they earn more. It covers people earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, and retirement accounts the worker owns do not count against its savings limits.

It is a work incentive in the plainest sense. It rewards people for working and lets them build a little security while they do it.

The trouble is that most people who qualify have never heard of it.

What I’ll push for in Helena

• Protect the program in every budget.
• Keep the income and savings limits high and tied to inflation, so they hold their value year after year.
• Keep the cost share small, so a raise always leaves a family ahead.
• Close the awareness gap, so caseworkers, employers, and families know this option exists.

I serve on the board of Access Billings, a disability-led organization where the people affected direct the work. The message from that table is consistent: disabled Montanans want to work, and they want work to pay. I wrote more about that in Disabled Montanans Deserve a Full Wage and a Fair Shot at Getting Hired.

Work should pay a full wage, and no one should lose their health care for taking it.

If this matters to you, help us keep showing up at smithformontana.com/donate.