Last week Florida Governor Rick Scott was named in a federal law suit on behalf of 19,000 citizens with developmental disabilities who are left without support on a waiting list. This week Scott wielded his emergency powers to slash rates paid to group home operators and service providers by 15% (the same services that 19,000 plaintiffs are suing to get). And on the same day the cuts were announced, as Think Progress pointed out, Rick Scott was scheduled to hand off the torch at Special Olympics. Has he got Scott Walker beat in the worst Governor contest today? Let’s see.
Medicaid Waiver Waiting List Triggers Federal Lawsuit
“Plaintiffs have been placed on waiting lists for enrollment on the DD Waivers where they languish for years without services thereby placing them at risk of institutionalization and regression of skills and therapies learned from educational programs,” according to the suit filed by Disability Rights Florida, a nonprofit disability rights group that’s representing the residents….The lawsuit names Florida Gov. Rick Scott and officials from the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration and Agency for Persons with Disabilities.
Deficit prompts Gov. Rick Scott to plan cuts to services for developmentally disabled
Those who provide services to the nearly 30,000 Floridians with cerebral palsy, autism and Down syndrome say they aren't concerned with the origin of the deficit as much as the effect of deep rate cuts."This would be a catastrophe," said Kingsley Ross, an advocate and lobbyist for Sunrise Community, a Miami-based group home operator. For the past three years, Ross said, providers have shouldered rate cuts. They're now operating on the thinnest of margins. "The system can't take this," Ross said.
What’s on tap in the Capital for Thursday, March 31
SPECIAL OLYMPICS TORCH RUN: Gov. Rick Scott, First Lady Ann Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater will attend the Special Olympics Torch Run Ceremony. Scott will participate in the run and pass the torch to a designated Special Olympics athlete. (10 a.m., Starting at Publix, 1700 N. Monroe St., Tallahassee, ending at the Capitol.)
This gesture epitomizes the disdain of governors and legislatures across the country. Always ready for a photo op. But not there when it counts. Why? Well, people with disabilities are not powerful or wealthy. Services to support people with disabilities do cost money. Quietly, our most vulnerable now bear the harshest losses from Wall Street’s reckless gamble. Will the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, AIG bail them out? Will AFSCME or SEIU? Or will billionaire corporations? How can President Obama address what no one sees as a national crisis? Public sector unions can stage mass rallies at state houses to keep collective bargaining rights. But who will stand for those who ask for a modest life, with reasonable supports, living in the community---not locked away in state institutions?