Vote today to fully fund medicaid waivers for those w/ DD

[Guest guest]

Vote today to fully fund medicaid waivers for those w/ DD

The National Organization to End the Waitlists (NOEWAIT) urges the

Obama transition team to fully fund medicaid waivers as part of the

economic recovery plan, including creating a large number of jobs.

We have started a national movement about this issue . Please take a

moment to vote as today is the last day!

There is a remarkable web site at change.org:

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/fully_fund_medicaid_waivers_for_the_d

evelopmentally_disabled

also available through the tinyurl below:

http://tinyurl.com/3l9a8c

where over 5000 parents, professional, advocates and self-advocates

have endorsed a proposal to include funding the extensive and never-

ending years-long wait lists for critical services pervasive all

across the United States for individuals with intellectual and

developmental disabilities; and for gaining portability of those

services from county-to-county and state-to-state. This funding is

proposed as a portion of the Obama administration's Economic Stimulus

Package.

Additionally, over 500 individuals have posted comments about their

dire circumstances. Here is one example that highlights the effect

of wait lists and lack of portability upon our military folks:

This change is crucial for military families whose developmentally

disabled children go to the very bottom of the waiting list every

three years when we have to move to a new duty station. The rates of

children diagnosed on the autism spectrum in military families are

more than double the rates of those in families within the civilian

population. Surely we can do better for these military families and

their innocent children who literally may never enjoy the important

the advantages that the medicaid waiver provides under the rules of

the current system because their parents serve our country and have

to move every two to three years.

Benefits of this proposal include:

1). Job creation in the form of service providers. $12-$15Billion

per year would create an estimated 244,000 jobs.

2). Community living costs less than institutionalization.

3). Parents and affected individuals can return to their careers,

earn income, pay taxes and obtain health insurance.

4). Some families will come off public assistance which reduces

overall tax burden.

5). Families will be able to move to accept new jobs or military

assignments.

6). Improved health of affected people and caregivers.

7). Reduced financial burden on aging parents.

I am enclosing a letter (January 7, 2009 from me and Pedro Geraldino)

ihighlighting additional factors in regards to this issue.

We strongly believe that this is an opportunity for major change in

federal regulations as portability of services is a critical issue.

We would like to discuss the federalizing of services as a part of

the plan.

The NOEWAIT web site:

http://www.noewait.net

contains further information and documentation regarding this vital

issue.

Yours very truly,

Denver C. Fox, Ed.D.

Moderator, NOEWAIT

On behalf of the NOEWAIT Organizing Committee