By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Outdated U.S. policies are keeping many disabled Americans from getting help they need, an expert panel said on Tuesday in a report faulting government inaction toward the needs of this growing population.

"Society must do more now before a crisis is upon us," Alan Jette, director of Boston University's Health and Disability Research Institute and head of the Institute of Medicine panel, wrote in a report.

"Far too little progress has been made in the last two decades to prepare for the aging of the baby boom generation and to remove the obstacles that limit what too many people with physical and cognitive impairments can achieve," Jette added.

The report looked at a wide range of issues affecting the disabled such as accessibility of buildings and other places, gaps in public programs such as those paying for wheelchairs and scooters and health insurance coverage.

The panel said younger and middle-aged people face increasing risk for future disability due to factors such as diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.

This suggests the coming generation of elderly Americans may have more disabilities than the current one.

DISABLED SOLDIERS

Jette told reporters he hoped the return home of thousands of U.S. soldiers who suffered disabling combat wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan would bring greater national attention to the plight of disabled Americans.

The 14-member panel urged the government to change rules blocking the disabled from getting equipment and services to help them work and do other activities outside the home.

Jette said he particularly wanted more progress on making buildings and other places accessible to the disabled and the creation of a national program to track data on the disabled.

Panel member Lisa Iezzoni of Harvard Medical School urged the Justice Department to increase efforts to make sure health care facilities are fully accessible.

The panel said the public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and private health plans continue to restrict access to technologies and services that can help disabled people.

The report called for changing Medicare's "in-home use" rule for equipment like wheelchairs or scooters. Current regulations require that equipment must be "appropriate for use in the home," which the report the government has interpreted to mean equipment will not be paid for if, for example, it would help a person at work and not at home.

RISING NUMBER OF DISABLED

Between 40 million and 50 million Americans -- roughly one in seven -- have some kind of disability, the report said. The number is expected to balloon over the next three decades as the baby boom generation ages.

"Inaction will lead to individual and societal costs -- avoidable dependency, diminished quality of life, increased stress on individuals and families, and lost productivity," the panel said in a statement.

The Institute of Medicine provides advice on health issues to U.S. policymakers. The report was requested by, among others, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The panel urged Congress to scrap a two-year waiting period for Medicare eligibility for people receiving Social Security disability insurance.

The institute issued previous reports on the disabled in 1991 and 1997. Jette noted that many of their major recommendations were ignored by U.S. leaders.

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