If you were to ask Governor Brownback what exactly it is that Centers for Independent Living do or even what services are provided under the State’s own Home and Community Based Services waivers, I am betting he would have no clue. Certainly the feedback we’ve gotten in the last week supports that assertion.
When the Governor’s office was asked by advocates what the Governor planned to do to address the Waiting List for the Physically Disabled(PD) Home and Community Based Services(HCBS) waiver, the answers varied widely and none satisfactorily addressed the concern.
People were told that once the fraud is taken care of within the Medicaid system, Kansans with disabilities who are waiting for services will be able to access the services as the funding will improve. This, of course; does nothing to address the over 3,300 Kansans who are currently on the waiting list, many of them nearing the 3 year mark. When the Governor espouses his passion for Kansas families, why isn’t he including the thousands of families suffering while their loved one goes without services?
In a brilliant display of complete bone-headedness, one advocate was told that she should give more money to the United Way as they can provide services. Seriously?? Exactly what does the Governor’s office think the United Way would provide someone who can’t care for their personal needs in their home?
This Administration confidently asserts that they can completely remodel the Medicaid system in under a year and have that be successful, at the same time displaying (in glaringly obvious ways) that they don’t understand their OWN programs and services. For instance, the only mention of Centers for Independent Living in the Governor’s proposed budget was in a paragraph lumping them in with CDDOs as providing the same services.
If it’s not bad enough that the Administration doesn’t understand the systems they are trying to overhaul, they make it clear that they don’t value or even accept input or questions from the constituency. Many advocates were told yesterday that “We are not fielding questions on this issue but will pass on your concern.”
The Administration touts the public forums that were held, supposedly, to determine the shape of Medicaid overhaul. These findings were released late last year and indicated that Kansans really wanted Managed Care. Wait, what? As someone who actively participated in all of the different ways to submit ideas and information, Managed Care was brought up by the Administration and the several representatives of Managed Care organizations (for-profit companies) sprinkled throughout the “public”.
It felt much less like a natural progression of public input and much more like a “roadmap” toward what the Administration already envisioned. I feel that this is made very clear when Lt. Gov. Colyer repeatedly claims that January 2013 is not to soon to implement an entire Managed Care system for all of Medicaid because, by then, it will be 2 years worth of work. Really? Because they just wrapped up public input to help craft this colossal mess the latter part of 2011. If public input really mattered, it would seem that the starting off point for Managed Care would be at the end of that time period.
All in all, the fears that the disability community had in the beginning regarding the Medicaid overhaul, and public input being just lip service, seem to have played out accurately. It is past time to hold this Administration accountable for the cavalier way they are restructuring the very lives of Kansans with disabilities and assert that the experts on disability services are those with disabilities and our choice, our independence, and our knowledge needs to not only be integrated into any type of Medicaid reform, but needs to be paramount.