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disability funding

Just Leave the Special Olympics Alone

Posted on by Paige Mador

By Mike Hyland, President and CEO

The 2020 federal budget proposal contains countless line items and notations, as is expected in any document so large and overwhelming.  Even in all that minutiae however, one particularly disgraceful item stands out: the call to eliminate all funding for Special Olympics.  Once again it seems that people with disabilities are in danger of being cast aside and left behind so that money can go to others.  Enough already! 

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has proposed a budget that would end federal funding for Special Olympics.  As offensive as that proposal is all on its own, her rationale for minimizing the importance of this intentional neglect is absurd.  DeVos stated that Special Olympics “is well supported by the philanthropic community”.  This is true but what the secretary is missing is the whole point of a not-for-profit status.  The Special Olympics, just like provider agencies, is permitted by law to fundraise because the government readily admits that the work is underfunded in the first place.  Taking away those relatively few dollars is a public rejection by DeVos and others of the value of Special Olympics and other organizations that support people with disabilities.  In fact, her proposal would negatively affect close to 300,00 children across the country.

So why is Special Olympics so important?  Because since the ‘60’s, the organization has opened doors and opportunities for people with disabilities in ways that never existed before.  These people were finally given the chance to participate in organized activities that improve health, confidence, and self-esteem while at the same time creating genuine relationships and inclusion.  People with disabilities who were shuttered away for so long now have a bevy of programing choices that span across the world and offer participation and achievement for individuals who were denied these opportunities for generations.  Special Olympics has also worked tirelessly to confront and end the stigma that people with disabilities have always had to endure, giving them a public platform to celebrate their efforts and successes.  It is truly baffling that some in government would choose to make this work even harder than it already is.

Unfortunately, it’s not an unusual step from Secretary DeVos and the administration in D.C.  It’s the 3rd year in a row they’ve proposed slashing funding for Special Olympics, though the first attempt to end funding outright.  It’s difficult to fathom just what those people have against people with disabilities.  The almost $18 million spent annually on Special Olympics is irrelevant in the $4 trillion federal budget, making the annual attack on this crucial funding even more ridiculous.  It’s time that those in power stop seeing the disabilities community as low hanging fruit for budget cuts.  Thankfully, the proposal is not very likely to pass in Congress when the budget is finally done.  What’s troubling, however, is the yearly need to still stand up and try to defend the relative pittance that an organization like Special Olympics gets from the government to provide precious opportunities for so many people.

Let’s Make Sure We Keep the Promise

Posted on by Paige Mador

By Mike Hyland, President and CEO

The end of the year tends to be a busy time.  The holidays are upon us, there are seemingly endless tasks and errands, high school seniors are planning the next steps in their lives, and Old Man Winter makes his annual return.  This is also the time of year when Congress tries to wrap up business.  In 2017, that means tax reform, which we all know is an unfailingly complicated business.  In addition, this year Congress will also take up the chore of confirming (or not) a new Secretary of Health and Human Services.  With all due respect to the enormity of the work happening in Washington D.C., we should be careful to ensure we don’t leave people who need help, and those who provide that help, behind.  In other words, let’s make sure we keep the promise.

It is most important that we remember that massive change has the potential to inflict unintended consequences on various groups.  As such, our Congress has a responsibility to be sure that any legislation or action does not inadvertently harm people with disabilities or the professionals who work tirelessly to help them.  The cost of providing quality services to people is not cheap, and it’s not supposed to be.  An automobile with front and side airbags costs more than one with pillows stapled to the steering wheel because it’s safer for people, and that’s what provider agencies do: we keep people safe.  Providing supports that allow people to live vibrant lives with dignity and choice is the minimum of what we should require as a society.  And this is not just a responsibility at the national level either.  Individual states must also ensure that we don’t lose the gains we’ve made over the years.

Massachusetts is one of a number of states now moving under the auspices of managed care entities the fiscal oversight responsibilities for many of the services provided to people with disabilities   The goal of reducing redundancy through better coordination of care is appropriate and even admirable.  That goal, however, is dwarfed by the responsibility to make sure that no one who currently receives community supports is forced to make do with less. We must take great care to guard against the pitfalls experienced in states such as Texas, where many severely disabled children have seen a horrifying reduction in vital services, or Kansas, where some families have been asked to sign blank treatment plans that ultimately called for drastic cuts to supports that keep loved ones in the community.  Massachusetts has always been a compassionate leader in the provision of social services and that commitment must remain absolute in the face of any systemic changes that may take place

As politicians struggle with the need and pressure to reduce runaway costs in certain areas, they owe it to everyone who receives community based-supports to remember just what people with disabilities (and their families) were told to expect when such supports were moved out of institutions and into local communities.  They were promised that people would be safe.  That is a promise that needs to be kept.  It’s everyone’s responsibility to see that it is.

Is this the Final Assault on Medicaid?

Posted on by Paige Mador

By Mike Hyland, President and CEO

With the year half over already, the U.S. Senate is working furiously to pass a bill that overhauls the Affordable Care Act before Congress recesses for the July 4th holiday.  A bill written in complete secrecy by just 13 members of the 100-member Senate is finally making its way to all of the people who will ultimately vote on it next week and, like the bill passed by the House of Representatives last month, the details are alarming.

Of paramount concern is the Senate’s plan to mirror the bill passed by the House that significantly cut Medicaid over a ten-year period, while also converting it to a block grant.  It is not just an assault on Medicaid, but an unequivocal betrayal of people with developmental disabilities and the hard-working men and women who support them in the community.  With Governor Baker already asserting that this legislation will cost Massachusetts billions if enacted, the Commonwealth will find itself in a position where draconian cuts to basic supports will be inevitable.  The human service industry already struggles to hire people, and will now be gutted even further.  The funds available to increase wages will disappear.  There have been months of advocacy that have taken place to educate the White House and Congress about what these cuts will do to people with disabilities, as well as the professionals dedicated to helping them.  Both the proposed Senate and House bills represent that the people who wrote them and voted for them just don’t care.  They know that services for people with disabilities will be cut and that pay for direct care professionals will freeze. Their actions prove they truly don’t give a damn.  How did we allow our society to get here?  If there is one thing that elected officials should be able to agree upon, it is the duty to protect people with disabilities and the too-long-taken-for-granted workforce that helps them.  Instead, President Trump and leadership in the House and Senate have chosen to abandon them and dedicate dollars that currently support these groups to the most affluent in our country via a tax cut.  Perhaps worst of all, these actions come following a promise from candidates that, if elected, they would protect Medicaid and the disabled.  Obviously, it was a lie from the start.

There is still a process that these bills must go through before becoming law.  Essentially, the House and the Senate must find a way to reconcile the two bills into one and send it to the White House to be signed.  It is my hope that people will flood lawmakers like never before with phone calls and emails that decry this horrific dismissal of people in need.  We should inundate our lawmakers with the notion that people with disabilities have the right to live safely in local communities.  We must also remember the professionals who are dedicated to supporting them.  So many people have worked way too hard, for far too long, under grueling circumstances to be so blithely abandoned in favor of millionaires and stubborn ideology.  Gandhi once said, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”.  If one believes this, it would seem that we are dangerously close to failing the test.

Forum with Congressman Joe Kennedy

Posted on by Paige Mador

On Monday, Venture representatives attended a Disability and Health Care Forum with Congressman Joe Kennedy hosted by the Association of Developmental Disability Providers at the Boston Marriott in Newton.  The event was attended by staff members and leadership from human service agencies, self-advocates, and family members of people with disabilities.  Kennedy shared his commitment to “recognizing the potential in every person”, regardless of their physical or intellectual disability.

Congressman Kennedy expressed his concern about the American Health Care Act and how it will affect the rights of people with intellectual disabilities, with $1.4 trillion in cuts to health care.  He shared his concerns regarding threats to social security, affordable housing, food stamps, and even Special Olympics.  He pledged his commitment to the disability community, saying that we cannot support “cuts to services that we will all likely use someday, or be used by someone we love”.  In addition to thanking attendees for their activism, he encouraged the group to continue advocating and raising their voices.  He asked advocates to contact friends and family in other states and encourage them to find one more Republican Senator to oppose the AHCA.

Recently, Congressman Kennedy addressed Congress, rebuking The American Health Care Act.  Watch the video here.

Congressman Joseph Kennedy III represents the 4th District of Massachusetts and is a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.  For more information, visit his web site.

Why Medicaid Has to Survive

Posted on by Paige Mador

By Mike Hyland, President and CEO

The inexplicable assault on Medicaid continues in the Trump administration and there is good reason for people to worry about it.  The President’s stated plan to gut Medicaid by almost a trillion dollars over a ten year period, while cutting taxes for millionaires, will eviscerate crucial programs that allow people with developmental disabilities to live safe and meaningful lives in community-based settings.  We should all wonder aloud why this population of marginalized people should be so brazenly abandoned.  After we wonder about it, we should be appalled.  We should also be gravely concerned for another forgotten group: the dedicated workforce of professionals who support these people in the community.

For too long already, we have allowed people who do the very difficult work of direct care to be almost entirely neglected by national policy makers.  Advocacy to guarantee legitimately livable wages and increases, affordable health care, access to higher education and professional development too often fall on deaf ears in Washington D.C.  Publicly, officials praise the incredible work being done by so many committed professionals.  Privately, they do little to support this workforce.  Now, astonishingly, the Trump administration is dismissing these professionals and the value of their skills by proposing a budget that will make it virtually impossible for them to get paid appropriately for the vital work they do every day.

According to the Baker administration, a cut of this magnitude would cost Massachusetts approximately $1.5 billion in the first year alone.  Obviously, this kind of cut cannot be absorbed under current revenue collections, meaning that the state will have to significantly cut programs for developmentally disabled people or significantly raise taxes or, more likely, do both.  The needs of an already underpaid workforce will certainly not be prioritized in state contracts under such conditions because the money won’t be there.  We already have a genuine workforce crisis in the field of human services in this country.  By obliterating the funding mechanism that pays direct care professionals, the Trump White House is saying loud and clear that the new administration values the wealthy above the disabled and those who do so much to help them.  How sad that after so many years of advances in overcoming disabilities, stigma, bullying, isolation, and discrimination, the disability community now faces its greatest threat from people elected to help them.  How sad that the dedicated people who work tirelessly to this day to make these advances possible stand to be abandoned by those who once promised unequivocally not to cut Medicaid.

It is totally irrelevant where the plans to cut Medicaid by such a staggering amount originate.  The position, the political party, the individual, or the special interest group that encourages such devastation doesn’t matter.  Anyone who plans to do harm to so many must always be challenged and educated to understand what Medicaid truly does.  Such massive cuts as currently planned dangerously expose people who need help through no fault of their own.  Just as troubling, they signal a total dismissal of the very real needs of the many professionals who already sacrifice so much to help others.  These amazing men and women deserve much, much better than that.

Don’t Betray Innocent People

Posted on by Paige Mador

By Mike Hyland, President and CEO

Once again there is a bill in Washington that would replace the Affordable Care Act with another version of health care policies, regulations, and practices.  Obviously, this is a heated political issue and will likely remain so for many years – but the politics of it tend to obscure an important fact: the current bill, like the last failed bill, will unequivocally harm people with disabilities and the professionals who support them.  In other words, it betrays innocent people.

The proposed bill will punch holes in Medicaid funding that individual states will not be able to fill.  With cuts of almost $850 billion over the next ten years, people with disabilities and their advocates once again find themselves (for the second time in a year that is barely four months old) in danger of being left behind.  In fact, given that this is the second bill in 2017 that threatens them, it would appear that a good many people in Congress are also choosing to simply say that these people just don’t matter.  How in the world can that be okay in this country?

Medicaid is a $600 billion annual program that contains many provisions and it is probably time for the program to be evaluated in terms of efficiency and outcomes.  Nonetheless, converting it to a block grant or per capita program goes well beyond that.  It destroys safety nets and opportunities for people with disabilities and turns a blind eye to the work force that has battled for years to be recognized with appropriate pay and benefits for the valuable work they do and have always done.  Drastic reductions to Medicaid funding undeniably makes it even harder to support professionals who are already stretched too thin.  Clearly, these proposed Medicaid cuts are tantamount to Congress and the new administration telling this workforce that what they do isn’t important.  At best, the people proposing this latest bill just don’t understand what this industry does.  At worst, they just don’t care.

People with developmental disabilities rely on current levels of funding to stay safe, to remain in a community of choice, to get to work programs, and to access wellness and recreation.  It’s utterly baffling that this would be a group that politicians seem to have deemed as needing less than they get now.  We’ll ignore the reality that savings realized from service cuts to disabled people are intended to fund a tax cut for people making a million dollars a year and up.  That’s an issue to be taken up elsewhere.  What needs to be talked about is the reality that the current legislation, as written, will take away from people who essentially have the least.  People with developmental disabilities already struggle to work, to get adequate health care, to have reliable transportation, to develop social networks, and to be heard.  They also are victims of abuse and neglect at a higher rate than the general population.  So why does Washington believe that reducing programs that support them is a good idea?  No one seems willing to answer that question, particularly those who when campaigning pledged not to cut Medicaid.  The hypocrisy is staggering!

The ACA is obviously a hot button issue that will remain so for a long time to come.  It’s expensive and it is the duty of elected officials to examine it and anything else that divides so many people.  But don’t do something that harms people who are ignored far too often.  Don’t turn back the clock and wipe out years of progress on so many fronts for people with developmental disabilities.  Hey Washington – don’t betray innocent people.