Short diary, but I felt it important.
When I was a kid in gimp school (a school for physically disabled kids. the term gimp is acceptable slang if one of us uses it...) We were always being tested on our comprehension. It seemed to go on a lot longer if we didn't show any cognitive deficit. The testers wanted to be sure we were smart. Sure that we caught on as well as the tests seemed to indicate.
I wonder if John Boehner will catch on? Let's go down the ramp, below the fold.
Per AAPD and ADAPT:
Twenty members of ADAPT, the national disability rights direct action organization, are at the Troy district office of U.S. Representative John Boehner, demanding that Boehner set a date to meet with them on federal Medicaid spending strategy. Boehner and the Republican party want to make drastic cuts to Medicaid spending. ADAPTers say that money can be better saved by ensuring that a greater proportion of Medicaid spending be invested in home- and community-based supports.
Discussing a similar program’s savings based on caring for the elderly in their homes, In 2006 the Congressional Budget Office report estimated that:
But the truth is that CBO estimates the CLASS Act will reduce the deficit for at least the next 20 years.
So. Persons with disabilities want the Medicaid program to save money. They are onboard with that. This would, of course reduce the deficit, and save the states money as well.
The nursing home lobby gets annoyed at the thought of this, because the flow of money would be reduced, either lost to them altogether or, partially diverted in another direction.
I’ll be watching with interest for the answers to the following questions:
Will the Speaker set an appointment time?
Will the speaker refuse to meet with the Adapt representatives?
If there is a meeting, what will they discuss?
Will he understand that this money saver is a win-win? Will he sit still for a cost comparison between this and the current block grant proposal....?
I truly hope so. I hope he does meet with them with an open mind.
Speaker Boehner comes from my state. I now live in a building in that state that has a lot of former nursing home/rehab residents in it. where stories of the nursing homes a neighbor or two left awhile ago are…without revealing too many details…troubling.
The folks I know are cognitively sound, making their own choices about their lives…having fun…out in the sun chatting, trips to more than just a store, parties in the building, engagement in the wider community, religious service, etc.
Engaged on the Net, or in the world. Some work, some don’t, some drive, some don’t but they’re all interested in what’s going on.
They haven’t lost track of time, days weeks or months. They haven’t had their belongings stolen. They haven’t been forced to take on a thief as a roommate in a nursing home…
Here they have the help they need, and their own living livable spaces. They have autonomy. And these great outcomes cost less.
I really wonder if Speaker Boehner will comprehend that.