`Mind-boggling’ state budget cuts devastating Kansans with disabilities, advocates say
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Topeka — Kansans with disabilities on Friday pleaded with lawmakers to restore cuts in Medicaid funding that have ended some services and threaten to eliminate more.
Medicaid cuts affecting local families
The "Big Tent Coalition" is calling on Kansas legislators to restore medicaid cuts
“Any more cuts, and I may have to go into a nursing home,” said Terry
Walter of Topeka. Walter has diabetes, congestive heart disease and uses
a wheelchair.
Daniel Perez of Wichita talks about care services his son, Daniel, 18, who is autistic, is losing
under recent Medicaid budget cuts. The Big Tent Coalition called for restoration of the 10
percent budget cut. At a news conference Friday in the Capitol, several people said the lost
services will result in more people being placed in more expensive nursing home care.
Because of dwindling tax losses, Gov. Mark Parkinson cut Medicaid by 10
percent or $77 million. The cut has been especially harmful because it
means the loss of an additional $140 million in federal matching funds.
“It’s just mind-boggling that we would cut those services only to force
people into institutions which are going to cost taxpayers more dollars,”
said Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Disability Rights Center of
Kansas.
He said policymakers don’t understand that the cuts “are real and are
devastating people’s lives, and without restoring those cuts, it’s only going
to get worse.”
At a news conference, several people caring for those with disabilities
spoke about the need to restore funding.
Margaret Landry, a caregiver from Lawrence, said that because of the
cuts, the 3-year-old boy she takes care of, Max, will be unable to get a
new wheelchair when he grows out of the one he is in now.
Daniel Perez of Wichita said the cuts have forced him to lose respite and
dental care for his autistic son, Daniel, 18.
And Kathy Payne of Berryton said the cuts have reduced the wages for
the caregiver of her 36-year-old daughter, Robin, who is severely disabled.
Without Robin’s caregiver, Payne said she would not be able to hold down
a job and keep her daughter at home.