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A Colorado mother has proposed that the Obama Administration consider fully funding the Medicaid Waiver program and making it portable as part of the new economic stimulus package. The idea has made it to the final round of voting which takes place January 5th-15th on Change.org, Ideas for America.
Vote: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/fully_fund_medicaid_waivers_for_the_developmentally_disabled
Change.org has provided an opportunity to engage many people in selecting top ideas for our country. Over 7,000 ideas were presented on the site, where people could vote for their favorites. The top three ideas in each category now move into the next phase of voting beginning Monday, January 5. Change.org will also help the winners to work with an organization to continue working on the idea and will hold a press conference about the final ten at the National Press Club.
“Every person matters when it comes to contributing to economic recovery. It is important for Americans to shift the way we think about providing services for people with disabilities,” says Renee Beauregard, author of the idea to fully fund the Medicaid waiver program. “This is a population of people who do not simply ‘take’ from society. We don’t think of healthcare as ‘charity,’ and by the same token, funding services that support community living for people with disabilities is not charity. Serving their needs is a segment of our economy that is valuable to everyone.”
Across America, an estimated 300,000 people are unable to access services to help them with daily community living because of lack of funding in the Medicaid Waiver program that pays for the services. States are also responding to the budget crisis from the economy by cutting the program even further.
Basic community living needs are met by the waivers. This includes food, shelter, home health care, care coordination for physical, mental, behavioral and oral health care, transportation, education, and employment. The cost of care in an institution is $88-$225,000 per person per year depending on the level of care. Alternatively, the cost for community-based care ranges from $20,000-$75,000 per year (estimated). Most families cannot afford these costs out-of-pocket. When families of young children cannot access waiver services, their children do not get the therapies they need at critical times during development in order to live out their full potential. This means they will depend more upon the system later.
Estimates indicate that investing $12-$15B per year in the Medicaid Waiver program could create approximately 244,000 new jobs in the service provider industry. Some individuals will be able to move from institutions to the community, which will save money and provide a better life for the affected people and the community. Parents and caregivers will be able to return to careers and others will be able to get off of public assistance. Affected individuals will have job supports to enable them to work. The future is also impacted. Aging caregivers are now forced to use their own retirement savings, if they have it, to support their adult children. Younger families are foregoing college savings for their other children, and their own retirement savings, because the cost for care is taking all of their resources.
Medicaid Waivers are also not portable from state to state. Families that must move out of state or even out of their current county in some places because of military duty, to accept new jobs or better-paying jobs, or to live closer to family (for example, care for an elderly parent), must go to the bottom of decades-long waiting lists at their new location.
Support this idea beginning January 5:
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/fully_fund_medicaid_waivers_for_the_developmentally_disabled
“I encourage everyone to think about supporting this Idea for Change in America and my hope is that the Obama Administration will see the incredible opportunity presented by doing so,” says Beauregard.
