- Disabled Nevadans could lose aides under state cuts, By Ray Hagar, December 5, 2010, Reno Gazette-Journal: “Meg Procaccini was born with cerebral palsy. Unable to move much, the 46-year-old spends her days between her bed and wheelchair in an apartment building for the disabled at William J. Raggio Plaza. Her Medicaid covers the cost of a personal-care aide, who operates a lift that gets her from bed to chair and back to bed again. The aide means everything to the quality of life she tries to maintain. Coverage of the personal-care aides for more than 6,540 disabled Nevadans is listed among the state Department of Health and Human Services proposed cuts, Director Mike Willden said. ‘If they take the aides out completely, I won’t be able to get out of bed,’ Procaccini said. ‘I will just be in my building alone. If they do these budget cuts and take the aides away from us, I won’t be able to live my life.’ As part of Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval’s $1.2 billion in proposed budget cuts, Health and Human Services will need to trim $200 million from its current budget or $500 million from its requested budget for the 2012-13 cycle. The aides are a big-ticket item, with $53 million requested to cover their costs in the next biennium…”
- State struggles to help disabled residents create independent life, By Laura Frank and Jennifer Lafleur, December 5, 2010, The Coloradoan: “Nearly one out of every four residents in Larimer County nursing homes wants out, an analysis of state and federal records shows. Colorado – which was the birthplace of the independent living movement three decades ago – now is struggling to help disabled residents receive care at home instead of at a facility. And that’s costing the state money. ‘Long-term care in general is costing the state more and more each year, just as more people need long-term care services and the costs of care continues to increase,’ said Tim Cortez, hired by the state in June to reform long-term care with the goals of serving more people and saving money. In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court said people who can live independently have that right. Keeping them in nursing homes is a form of segregation, the court has said, and that violates their civil rights. But Colorado doesn’t have the resources or the infrastructure to assist all those seeking a change of living situation. And while the overall nursing home population is shrinking, the number of working-age Coloradans in nursing homes is actually growing…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty