[Education and Welfare] Fwd: [acb-chat] Ryan plan would hurt people with disabilities

Thu Apr 5 16:06:41 CDT 2012

hello all , so we need to call the Hill , and state that we are against this as well as the issues here within Missouri
Terrie

skyp -k.c.kitty

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Claude Everett" <ceverett at dslextreme.com>
Date: April 5, 2012 12:18:03 PM CDT
To: "'Blind Democracy Discussion List'" <blind-democracy at octothorp.org>, "'General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a widerangeoftopics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or whatever comes tomind are welcome. This is	afreeform discussion list.'" <acb-chat at acb.org>
Cc: 'CCB List' <ccb-l at ccbnet.org>
Subject: [acb-chat] Ryan plan would hurt people with disabilities

This story is taken from Sacbee / Living Here

Ryan plan would hurt people with disabilities
Published Friday, Mar. 30, 2012

The budget plan released by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., is a serious threat to Americans with disabilities.

Ryan is taking aim at Medicaid, which serves more than 8 million disabled
Americans. It helps pay for such essentials as prescription drugs,
wheelchairs, prosthetics and therapies.

Ryan's plan calls for block-granting Medicaid, which means the federal
government would give the states a lump sum of Medicaid revenue to spend as
they see fit. This may sound nice, but it really is a sneaky way of ending
the guarantee that people with disabilities have to Medicaid. States could
conceivably restrict eligibility in ways they cannot currently, thus
limiting access to Medicaid services for people with disabilities. Since
about 40 percent of Medicaid money serves people with disabilities, the
incentive for states to dump them off the rolls or reduce their coverage to
save money would be powerful. 

States would face increasing financial pressure to do so because Ryan's plan
also reduces federal spending on Medicaid by $810 billion over 10 years.
This is about 22 percent below the level needed to maintain the Medicaid
program over that period of time, according to the American Association of
People with Disabilities.

Ryan would also make deep across-the-board cuts that could severely impact
disabled Americans' access to housing and education.

Ryan put forth a similar draconian budget last year. Fortunately, he didn't
completely get his way. He has to be stopped again.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Mike Ervin is a Chicago-based writer and a disability-rights activist with
ADAPT. Readers may write to the author at: Progressive Media Project, 409
East Main Street, Madison, Wis. 53703; email: pmproj at progressive.org; Web
site: www.progressive.org. For information on PMP's funding, please visit
http://www.progressive.org/pmpabout.html#anchorsupport. 

This article was prepared for The Progressive Media Project and is available
to MCT subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this
column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily
represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or its editors.

2012, Mike Ervin 

Share

Regards, 
Claude Everett
"Labor is prior to and independent of 
capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if

labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves
much the higher consideration."
Abraham Lincoln, 
Congressional address 1861 

_______________________________________________
acb-chat mailing list
acb-chat at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-chat
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://moblind.org/pipermail/ew_moblind.org/attachments/20120405/0844bb32/attachment.html>