Friday, February 19, 2010

Health Reform D-Day Approaches

I'm sorry, but I still want to know why Obama and the democrats are so studiously avoiding mention of this epidemic of traumatization of our most vulnerable citizens.

Is it because it only affects about 6 million people? You still need to add in the parents and caregivers who will fight desperately to keep their children (of whatever age) at home with them.

How many billions of dollars in stimulus funds are going to for-profit insurance companies with out-of-state headquarters, while Medicaid funded local employment of nurses, nursing aids and personal assistance caregivers is being eliminated.

Here's a weird figure for you: since January 6, 2010, 24 states and the District of Columbia have run local news stories about horrific local tragedies resulting from cuts in Medicaid funded home services. None of them mentioned the others.

Class action and civil suits alleging civil rights violations under Medicaid law have been filed, heard and/or decided in fifteen states in the past year.

Why is anyone who cares about health care reform so studiously ignoring this problem?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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About Me

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I'm the mom of a child with disabilities. Hannah's first neurologist said she might never develop beyond the level of a 2 month old infant, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. The brain damage was just too severe. Nine years later, she walks, uses a touchscreen computer and I've just been shown she can learn to construct sentences and do simple math with the right piece of technology. Along the way, I discovered I needed to teach myself what Hannah's rights to services really were. Learning about early intervention services led to reading about IDEA and then to EPSDT. I've been waiting for the Obama administration to realize the power and potential of EPSDT for the medical rights - including the right to stay at home with their families - of children with disabilities. The health reform people talk about long term care, and the disability people talk about education and employment, but nobody is talking about EPSDT. So I am.