war

State declares WAR on Coloradoans with disabilities

The State of Colorado has launched an attack against Coloradoans with disabilities. It has initiated budget cuts that will adversely affect thousands of people across the state. Effective July 1st, there will be a 5% cut in reimbursement funds that home health agencies receive to pay home health aides for their services. These aides only make what someone who works at 7-11 is paid, yet they help folks with disabilities do the vital tasks that it takes for them to live independently within the community. Now, they face a pay cut!
As if that were not enough, the state has also placed a freeze on HCBS-EBD waivers. These are home and community based services waivers for elderly, blind, and disabled folks who are in nursing homes, and want to live in the community. Now, with the stroke of a pen, their dreams of freedom have been dashed. To add insult to injury, agencies and organizations serving people with disabilities are not invited to comment on this until July 12th, eleven days after these initiatives go into effect!
The state says that it has done this to save money. Yet, studies in Colorado as well as across the nation show that states save over 60% by providing services to a person in the community rather than in a nursing home. Further, the Supreme Court has ruled that people with disabilities have a right to live in the most integrated setting, citing that unjustified institutionalization is discrimination! President Bush’s New Freedom Initiative clearly states that all Departments and States should integrate people with disabilities into the mainstream of society. President Bush awarded each state $1,000,000 to transition people out of nursing homes. Colorado was supposed to do this using the HCBS-EBD waiver, but froze it instead. Either the state feels that it is above the Supreme Court and the President or, as the press has pointed out, they must have some powerful friends and big campaign contributors in the nursing home industry.
The people of Atlantis Community, ADAPT, Association of Centers for Independent Living, PASCO, Accent on Independence, Colorado Cross Disability Coalition, and other home health agencies and organizations in Colorado are not going to sit still while the state declares war on us in the community, and people who are still in nursing homes. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We need your support to help us fight this grave injustice that has been perpetrated against us. We will hold our vigil until these laws that were implemented on July 1 are repealed. Please join us, or if that isn’t possible, you can support us with money, food, water, staff, or phone calls, faxes, and e-mails to the Governor, the Joint Budget Committee, senators and congresspeople. If we don’t fight this, home health agencies will fold, people with disabilities will go into nursing homes, and those in nursing homes will never move into the community. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! For more information, contact us at 303-733-9324.

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