The disabled are so screwed

[spinbaby]

Cher did a good thing and helped out a disabled kid, but when I read this story, I'm appalled at how much we're not helping our disabled. No health care because he makes more than $599 a month? Who can live on that? Why the #$%!! are the disabled reduced to begging? And just think, we're spending billions to create more disabled every day!
----------
NORTHPORT, Ala. - A donation from Cher helped a 16-year-old Northport boy suffering from muscular dystrophy get vital home health care at his trailer — at least for a few months.

Joseph Sullivan, who can move his head and fingers but little else, was all but bedridden this summer because his 69-year-old adoptive mother is disabled from two strokes and home health care was cut off when he lost Medicaid coverage. The Medicaid money ended when the boy's survivor benefits from his father's death increased his income $13 over the agency's $599 monthly limit.

Without Medicaid, the Sullivans couldn't afford the $190 weekly cost of home health care to keep Joseph bathed and dressed so he could leave the house and eventually return to school.

http://tinyurl.com/anwhx

[beyurslf]

1. i have never understood the idea of cutting everything off when a certain

dollar amount is reached. Instead, why don't they reduce benefits in ratio to the amount over the limit they go. Someone 13 bucks over gets nothing while someone 1 dollar under gets everything? It makes no sense.

[skids]

2. Because...

...that might actually make sense.

[DarbyUSMC]

16. It does vary from state to state but there exists a "spend-down" to

bridge the gap in many states. If, for instance, a person is $100 over the limit to be eligible, the state will have the person pay an amount of money either to a doctor, pharmacy or to the agency itself. Once that is paid each month the person is able to get everything else with the Medicaid card. In this state that is the way it works. In this particular county, the spend-down is sent right to the agency. They ask that you send it before the first of the month so you will have uninterrupted coverage which makes life easier for everyone. The further south you get, the fewer benefits you get. That may be a gross generalization but workers in Florida have told me that the reason for that is to discourage people from moving to the warmer states. California, New York and I think Michigan offer the most as far as benefits and services go.


In this particular case I'm really puzzled as to why there is no spend-down. Something is askew.

[alfredo]

3. fixed link Money for war and for Exxon, but none for

the disabled. typical.


Here's a tiny url link to your story.

http://tinyurl.com/anwhx

[spinbaby]

7. Thanks for the link fix:-)

I'll add it to my original post.

[alfredo]

15. For some reason the semicolon

confuses bulletin board software.

[CrispyQ]

4. Why the #$%!! are the disabled reduced to begging?

Because Halliburton, Lockheed, GE & all the other war mongering profiteers need the money more than disable people do. :sarcasm:


OMG! $13 over the limit -- which is such a pathetic limit it's scandalous. I am just sick at what this country has become.

[napi21]

5. I think elegibility levels are set by each State!

You are talking about Alabama here ya know!

[wli]

6. sounds ilke where I'll be in a few years

One layoff and I'll be missing a few parts.

[leftchick]

8. my repuke freeper sister has a 16 year old with CP

and she still hasn't connected the dots. :banghead:

[cornermouse]

12. Depending on which state she lives in , she will.

[PA Democrat]

9. Bush's budget contained significant cuts to housing for the disabled also.

So when this kid's mom passes away, he may be facing another crisis.



Bush's budget:

Slashes housing program for people with disabilities by 50 percent. The President's budget would cut funding for the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program in half, cutting funding down to $120 million from its current level of $238 million.


Completely eliminates HUD's 30-year pledge to produce accessible supportive housing for people with disabilities. The President's budget also would completely eliminate all funding for new unit production under the Section 811 program, leaving only tenant-based subsidies. Historically, 75 percent of HUD's 811 appropriation has been used to fund capital grants and project-based rental assistance for non-profit disability groups to develop new fully wheelchair-accessible units of permanent supportive housing.


Represents an unprecedented shift of housing assistance away from people with more severe disabilities. The President's proposal to eliminate the Section 811 production program would have a particularly harsh impact on those with more severe disabilities. Historically, new units of supportive housing produced through Section 811 have been targeted to people with the most severe disabilities who rely on SSI income of $600 or less per month. For almost 30 years, this program has been a cornerstone of state and local efforts to implement community integration strategies for people with severe disabilities who otherwise live in nursing homes, public institutions, or at home with aging parents.

http://www.tilrc.org/docs/0505impact.htm

[fudge stripe cookays]

10. I'm terrified that this could happen to us....

One job loss and my Betaseron shots go bye-bye.

Without Betaseron, my MS could worsen, possibly blinding or crippling me. In addition to a host of other things.

At east in Canada without a job I could have basic provincial healthcare.

FSC

[KayLaw]

11. Dear God in Heaven!

What a horrid story. My son has autism and we have to save every penny we can to try to provide for him after our deaths. I know we can't depend on anyone else. Our family members say, Oh, won't there be some place he can go someday. . .

[catmandu57]

13. We're in a race to the bottom here

Since January Missouri has put out the no vacancy sign to the disabled, the poor, the elderly, they've cut finacial and medical support at an alarming rate.
Things were tough before, they're turning into a nightmare now, within the next couple of month the consenquences of our governor and lefislature actions are going to become very clear, people are going to die.

[Vinca]

14. And that, in a nutshell, is the Republican "culture of life."

Today I heard disabled vets are discharged with an $8,000 a year disability payment. $8,000 a year. People haven't been able to live a decent life on that amount since the 1950's. But on a positive note, the oil companies are making record profits so didn't they deserve our tax dollars in that energy bill?