[Missouri-l] Fw: [ATI] KANSAS CITY STAR

[Anne Murphy]

 ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reginald George" <adapt at kc.rr.com>
To: "Adaptive technology information and support." <ati at moblind.org>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 8:18 AM
Subject: Re: [ATI] KANSAS CITY STAR


> For Terrie.
>
> Monday, Mar 26, 2012
>
>
> Posted on Mon, Mar. 26, 2012
>
> Missouri House budget proposal would eliminate aid for blind
>
> Jason Hancock
> The Kansas City Star
>
> Terrie Arnold feels like Missouri lawmakers are playing political games 
> with
> her life.
>
> Arnold, 56, and her husband David, 57, were both born blind. He maintains 
> a
> third-shift job, but she is unable to work due to numerous other medical
> conditions.
>
> Those pre-existing conditions also keep her from obtaining private
> insurance, but the Kansas City couple earns too much to qualify for the
> Medicaid health care program for the poor.
>
> Arnold must depend upon Missouri’s Supplemental Aid to the Blind program.
>
> “It’s the only thing that keeps our head above water,” she said. “All of 
> our
> income would go towards prescriptions.”
>
> The Supplemental Aid to the Blind program pays for medical care for about
> 2,800 people who earn more than $9,495 a year — and therefore don’t 
> qualify
> for Medicaid — but also receive monthly payments from the state’s blind
> pension fund. They cannot have more than $20,000 in assets and cannot have
> sighted spouses who work.
>
> But in the $24 billion budget passed Thursday by the Missouri House, the 
> $28
> million health care program for the blind was eliminated. The money 
> instead
> was used to avoid another year of cuts to higher education.
>
> “To them it’s all dollars and cents,” Arnold said. “But this is about 
> people
> and their lives. It’s really scary.”
>
> The decision by House Republicans to eliminate the program has proved to 
> be
> the most controversial of the budget drafting process this legislative
> session and has turned into a political tug of war between the House and
> Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Its fate in the Senate, where the budget heads
> next, is still uncertain.
>
> Rep. Ryan Silvey, a Kansas City Republican who is chairman of the House
> Budget Committee, has said that in a tight budget the state can no longer
> afford to provide blind residents medical aid that people who are deaf or
> paralyzed do not receive.
>
> “It is completely inconsistent with how we treat any other disability in 
> the
> state,” Silvey said. “All we are going to do is put them on a level 
> playing
> field with anyone else with a disability.”
>
> With the state facing a $500 million shortfall and a request by the 
> governor
> to cut $68 million from higher education, House members were forced to 
> make
> tough decisions, he said.
>
> “If you continue to cut away and cut away and cut away at higher 
> education,
> before long you start cutting into your educated workforce,” Silvey said.
> “If you don’t have an educated workforce, how are you ever going to dig 
> out
> of a depressed economy?”
>
> House Speaker Steve Tilley, a Perryville Republican and a doctor of
> optometry, has repeatedly defended the cut.
>
> “I deal with visually impaired people every day, and I have some 
>  concerns,”
> Tilley said. “But at the end of the day, I don’t necessarily think they
> should be treated significantly differently than the other people who have
> another disability.”
>
> The House budget does include $6 million for a scaled-down version of the
> health care program, although $4 million of that total comes from
> legislation that has not yet passed that would end a sales tax exemption 
> for
> newspapers. The idea is to create a smaller program for those who are 
> truly
> in need.
>
> It’s estimated that $6 million will cover about 600 people.
>
> Christopher Gray, executive director of the Missouri Council of the Blind,
> said lawmakers are focusing on numbers instead of the impact their 
> decision
> will have on people.
>
> The unemployment rate for the blind is nearly 70 percent, Gray pointed 
> out,
> and many have other disabilities in addition to blindness that put them at
> risk of going uninsured. But the decision to end the program also is
> fiscally irresponsible, he argued.
>
> “Not only are these cuts just plain wrong, they will cost the citizens of
> Missouri tens of millions of dollars because of a $28 million transfer,”
> Gray said. “The costs will come when blind people who have no more medical
> benefit are forced to go to emergency rooms for treatment or to move into
> nursing homes when their support system is pulled out from under them.”
>
> Gray added that while the blind are the only disabled people who have this
> type of benefit, other disabilities have different types of services or
> Medicaid waivers that they are eligible for that are not available to the
> blind.
>
> “What bothers me about the debate on this program is the attempt by some 
> to
> alienate the blind from the community of disabled people,” he said. “It
> feels like a divide-and-conquer mentality.”
>
> Nixon has come out strongly against using money from the blind health care
> program for higher education.
>
> “Not one college or university president has asked for more funding at the
> expense of needy, blind Missourians,” Nixon said at an event earlier this
> month at a Columbia facility that promotes independent living for people
> with disabilities.
>
> Nixon later demanded that the funding for the program be fully reinstated.
>
> “We are not negotiating for a half loaf or a portion of this,” he said.
>
> House Democrats also decried eliminating the program, although they split
> from Nixon in calling for revenue increases — such as raising the state’s
> lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax — instead of relying solely on cutbacks
> to balance the budget.
>
> “If the state has to take away medical care from blind people to pay for 
> its
> colleges and universities, it is well past time to start looking for new
> sources of revenue,” said Minority Leader Mike Talboy, a Kansas City
> Democrat.
>
> But the governor and Democrats are simply “ramping up the political
> rhetoric” on this issue, Silvey said, pointing specifically to a radio ad
> funded by the Missouri Council for the Blind that began airing last week 
> in
> Kansas City.
>
> The ad accuses Silvey of forcing thousands of blind people “to choose
> between medical services and food.”
>
> In a letter to Nixon, Silvey said he’s ready to begin negotiations with 
> the
> governor on how to “fund both education and welfare” when “you have 
> finished
> with your press conferences and campaign rallies.”
>
> “Continuing the assault on education unabated, however, is not an option,”
> Silvey added.
>
> The 13 bills that make up the state’s budget will now go to the Senate.
> President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, a Dexter Republican, has said his chamber 
> will
> likely reverse the cut.
>
> But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer, a Columbia
> Republican, told The Associated Press that it’s time that “all programs 
> are
> looked at to evaluate who has taken their share of the cuts and who hasn’t.”
>
> If the Senate decides to reinstate the fund, it should be prepared to find
> corresponding cuts that don’t come from higher education, Silvey 
> countered.
>
> Meanwhile, Terrie Arnold said she hopes the cuts in blind services can 
> still
> be avoided.
>
> “I really feel like we’re being shut out of the process,” she said. “It’s
> like this is a game to them and we’re just pawns in that game. But I still
> think common sense will prevail.”
>
> To read more, visit www.kansascity.com.
>
> © 2012 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
> http://www.kansascity.com
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: From the IPHONE of Terrie L. Arnold
> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 6:37 AM
> To: From the IPHONE of Terrie L. Arnold
> Cc: gdu at moblind.org ; Missouri Chat ; First-Steps at googlegroups.com ;
> Adaptive and support. technology information ; Missouri List
> Subject: Re: [ATI] KANSAS CITY STAR
>
>
> all it is on page 4A, this is in todays paper.
>
> skyp -k.c.kitty
>
> On Mar 26, 2012, at 5:48 AM, "From the IPHONE of Terrie  L. Arnold"
> <terrieiphone at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> In todays Star is an artical on the issue of Medicaid that covers 2859 
> blind
> Missourians under the Blind Pension  program .
> I do not know how to transfer this from the paper to the lists, so can
> someone do this.
> Terrie Arnold
>
> skyp -k.c.kitty
> _______________________________________________
> ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
> A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
> http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
> A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
> http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
>