Immediate Access for the Terminally Ill Act
Current understanding
The Immediate Access for the Terminally Ill Act is a proposed bill that would let SSDI beneficiaries with qualifying terminal illnesses elect to begin receiving benefits one month after disability onset—waiving the standard five-month waiting period—in exchange for a permanent 7% reduction in their monthly benefit amount. The mechanism creates an optional trade-off between speed of access and benefit size for people with limited life expectancy. Status: introduced.
Evidence log
- 2026-01-15 — Immediate Access for the Terminally Ill Act: cross-connection with stop-the-wait-act: Both bills target the standard SSDI five-month waiting period, but take different approaches: Stop the Wait would phase it out generally, while Immediate Access offers terminally ill beneficiaries an expedited option in exchange for a reduced monthly benefit. (novelty: 3)