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Who Benefits?

• July 17th, 2006

After the longest ever legislative session in history, Virginia citizens finally have an approved budget. Seems the hang up was around transportation. A problem left unresolved despite the time investment from our elected officials.

For me the most disturbing aspects of the budget approval process were the decisions made that affected people with disabilities. An increase in Medicaid Waiver funding was granted to benefit people with disabilities living in the community as opposed to the state institutions, however if you look just below the surface of that seemingly good news you will find another truth. Virginia promotes and believes in congregate care, in other words people with disabilities living together whether they want to or not. Two increases were given, one for people who live in their own homes, which was 5% and one for people with disabilities who live with others who have the same label, mostly in group homes, which was 10%. What do those numbers really say? I think it is loud and clear. The more valuable approach here in the Commonwealth is congregate care. This is wrong for several reasons. The first being that it’s just one more example of not listening to people with disabilities and their families who are clearly saying they want something different than congregate or group care. Living in your own home or apartment is a fundamental principal to directing your own life. Secondly it provides for the largest increase to those keeping the status quo going thereby reinforcing the mantra of no change is good change. Coupled with the lack of affordable housing in the state is it any wonder that there is no other organization that exclusively supports adults with disabilities in their own homes with the exception of Hope House Foundation?

The other piece of good news touted in the budget is that we will be the first state in the nation, in the past 25 years, to rebuild our state institutions. In other words, money sunk in to buildings for large groups of people, are you seeing the pattern here? Why did this happen? Who or what is advising our representatives that this is good policy? Part of me thinks old habits die hard but another part thinks that the provider industry itself is promoting this kind of thinking. A good friend of mine who is a strong and fearless advocate for people with disabilities once advised me as to how to look at decisions like these. It’s something Karl Marx said and it’s only two short words that wipe away all confusion and speculation, “Who benefits”?