I received the following urgent Wisconsin message via e-mail:
URGENT – LIFT THE CAPS BILL STALLED! – ACT NOW!
Tell Your Legislator: “Move to Lift the Caps on Family Care and IRIS”!
Disability and aging advocates have been telling legislators and the governor since July that the caps placed on long-term care programs like Family Care, IRIS, PACE and Partnership are harmful to people with disabilities and seniors. Thousands of people are now waiting for critical daily supports like help with meals, dressing, going to work and participating in community life. The governor announced in December that he would lift the caps and the federal government has also told Wisconsin to do so. Bills to lift the caps and expand the program to counties that need it have been introduced in both the Assembly and Senate, but both have stalled! These bills must move through committees before they can pass and people can get the supports they need.
There are only so many days left for the legislature to do this! People’s lives are on hold!
We need every legislator to know they have constituents who want the caps lifted!
More beyond the squiggle...
Wisconsin has been a leader when it comes to providing community-based services for elders and people with disabilities. Wisconsin's flagship Family Care program was initiated under Republican governor Tommy Thompson with bi-partisan support, providing cost-effective assistance via a combination of Medicaid waiver and state & county funding to provide supports for people to live in their own homes rather than having to rely on institutional care. The program expanded under Governor Jim Doyle (D), and even Scott Walker was a proponent during his years as Milwaukee County Executive.
However, our progress ground to a sudden halt when the budget passed. Freezing enrollment for long-term care in Wisconsin was one of the lesser-known outrages tucked into the Walker administration's budget bill, one of the many elements that people fought in vain to remove. (Diaried last June in WI Special Olympians to Gov. Walker: Lift Caps on Family Care!) The Walker budget froze new enrollments for the entire biennium, a move estimated to double the state's waiting list by the time the two years were up.
We had a ray of hope, though: Gov. Walker began making noises even before the budget was passed that he'd like to find a way to lift the caps before the year was out. And indeed, just around Christmas time, he held a triumphant press conference announcing a pledge to lift the caps! That pledge itself became immediately controversial, as you may have read: Feds Order Lifting of Long-Term Care Caps in WI; Walker Tries to Take Credit.
Credit-taking posturing aside, the important thing is getting the enrollment caps lifted. Unfortunately, the caps are written into law in the state budget, so it takes more than a press conference to undo them; it takes legislation. As of mid-January, companion lift-the-caps bills were introduced in the Assembly and Senate, with bi-partisan co-sponsorship (we're not talking just one co-sponsor from across the aisle, this is the real bi-partisan deal -- Moulton and Vukmir and Harsdorf on the same bill as Erpenbach and Jauch and Risser!) In the Assembly, the bill is AB477; in the Senate, it's SB380.
But there hasn't been a peep since then. The bill hasn't been getting mentioned when the administration talks about priorities for the legislative session, which is rapidly waning; there've been no committee hearings scheduled.
The bill needs to get moving through the legislative process NOW, or it dies -- and the future gets bleaker for seniors and people with disabilities in Wisconsin.
ACTION STEP:
Contact your state legislators and ask them to request hearings on AB477 and SB380! You can look up your legislators here (and, due to redistricting shenanigans, you may even have a "bonus" legislator listed to contact!)
Suggested script for calling your Assembly rep:
Hello, I'm (name) and I'm a constituent of yours from (town). I'm calling about AB477, which would lift the enrollment caps on long-term care. Lifting the caps is important to provide the needed supports so elders and people with disabilities can live in their communities. This is cost-effective and keeps people out of more costly institutional care. Please ask Rep. Knodl, Chair of the long-term care committee, to schedule a hearing on AB477.
Same goes for the Senate, except it's SB380:
Please ask Sen. Vukmir, chair of the health committee, to schedule a hearing on SB380.
(As mentioned above, Sen. Vukmir is even a co-sponsor!!)
If you've got a personal connection with someone who's waiting for long-term care services, or someone who's receiving services and knows first-hand what a difference it can make, be sure to tell the story.
Here are just a few more tidbits from the action e-mail:
--There are too many people waiting (more than 8000 statewide!) so we need to act NOW!
-- Family Care is a cost-effective program and the legislature has lots of proof of this.
-- Programs like Family Care and IRIS provide people with essential daily supports – like help with meals, dressing, bathing, getting to work and living in their homes instead of costly institutions.
-- More than a quarter of people waiting are over age 85. How long can they wait?
-- Many families with a person with a disability are struggling to provide supports. How long can they wait?
Thank you, as ever, for your passion and activism and energy to do whatever we need to do to turn Wisconsin around!
