ADAPT supports the President’s proposed millionaire’s tax. Unlike Congressional Republicans who believe the burden of deficit reduction should only come from spending cuts to critical programs like Medicaid, the President has called for $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue.

However, we are deeply concerned about the President’s proposed cuts to Medicaid. We had expressed our concern directly to the White House and sought an assurance that the President’s plan wouldn’t include arbitrary cuts to Medicaid, but the administration has not responded to us. Although the President has said through the media that his proposals would spare beneficiaries, Medicaid is paid for jointly by federal and state government. Federal cuts to Medicaid will likely result in state-level cuts to Medicaid services, in addition tothe cuts that have already been made.

The President says that he expects all Americans to share the burden of controlling the budget, but Medicaid recipients are already shouldering the burden for balancing budgets at the state level. Facing deficits themselves, states have made significant Medicaid cuts of their own.

Medicaid cuts at the state level have already:

1. reduced or eliminated vital home care services and forced seniors and people with disabilities into nursing facilities against their will;
2. reduced or eliminated access to basic health care, including medications; and eliminated jobs for home care and direct care workers.

Because home and community-based services are optional, states cut those first. Consequently, seniors and people with disabilities who need long term services and supports to remain in the community find themselves forced into nursing facilities and other institutions because of these additional federal Medicaid cuts. Medicaid recipients and the direct careworkers who assist us have already shouldered more than our share of this burden! How many more people with disabilities and seniors must lose our basic freedoms and lives in order to have done our share?

ADAPT has proposedsolutions that produce REAL Medicaid reform. Wehave reached out to the White House and Congress to offer proposals on how we can contain Medicaid spending that wouldn’t negatively impact on Medicaid beneficiaries.

The ADAPT Community has identified four principles for Real Medicaid Reform:

1. Expand the use of community-based services
2. De-medicalize services
3. Expand consumer directed service options
4. Reorganize Medicaid services to eliminate wasteful bureaucracy

ADAPT calls on the administration to work with us to promote the inclusion of these reforms and eliminate Medicaid’s costly institutional bias as part of any plan to address the deficit.

Details of ADAPT’s REAL Medicaid Reform proposals can be found on the ADAPT website at http://www.adapt.org

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FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/