Encouraged perhaps as much by rock-bottom unemployment levels as anything else, President Clinton appears ready to give greater support to congressional measures that expand Medicaid and Medicare so people with disabilities can retain health benefits when they return to work. The idea should appeal to both Republicans and Democrats.

A bi-partisan bill, in fact, started this debate during the last session, when Sens. James Jeffords, R-Vt., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., tried but failed to pass what the president reportedly has proposed in his next budget. This allows Social Security recipients to continue to get Medicare when they return to work; let people with disabilities buy Medicaid coverage even if working disqualified them from other federal programs; and let people whose disabilities improve continue to buy Medicaid coverage.

A similar bi-partisan bill in the House last session differed in its proposals but had the same aim. Reps. Barbara Kennelly, D-Conn., and Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, proposed lengthening Medicare coverage to six years from four for a disabled person who enters the workforce; adding a 50-percent tax cut for special equipment for helping the disabled work; and providing more flexibility in choosing vocational rehabilitation services. Both bills recognize the same problem: Many disabled people would like to work but cannot because a loss of benefits could be life-threatening.

You wouldn’t know it in much of Maine, but the nation is suffering a shortage of workers. The unemployment rate has been below 5 percent so regularly, with such low inflation, the economics textbooks have needed rewriting. With 6.6 million working-age Americans with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security Income, the disabled are a natural source for meeting the demand for workers.

More importantly, the Medicare and Medicaid changes are simple ways to give Americans who want to work the ability to do so. Congress should support this proposal, giving the disabled a chance to return to the workforce.