I have great news…The House and Senate agreed to restore the 135 MRWP slots back into the FY09 budget!
Go to http://www.unlockthewaitinglists.com/advocate.html for a fact sheet and more information...
Our focus now shifts to the FY2010 budget covering services that will be available from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. There are a few issues at play this year that are important for you to understand. Please help me forward this action alert.
THE BAD NEWS
Because Georgia's economy is following national trends, on March 3rd Governor Perdue lowered his FY2010 Budget revenue estimate by $1.6 billion. Having less money to work with, the Senate and House will have to cut the overall budget by a substantial amount. They are now reviewing a revised budget offered by the Governor. Instead of naming specific programs to cut, the Governor simply included a $3M cut to Developmental Disability programs in DHR and then left it up to legislators.
Go to http://www.unlockthewaitinglists.com/advocate.html to see a summary of cuts.
THE GOOD NEWS
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed by Congress and signed by President Obama and will offer over $600M of relief for Medicaid services. This relief is offered through an enhancement of Georgia’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) from 65.1% to 74.82%. This increased FMAP simply means that before the ARRA, it used to take around 35 cents to get a dollar of disability services in Georgia, and now it only takes only ONE QUARTER to get a dollars worth of supports!
THE BOTTOM LINE: GEORGIA NOW HAS A CHOICE!
Georgia can use this enhanced Medicaid match from the ARRA to invest in services for people with disabilities - OR - they agree with the Governor and make cuts to disability supports while withdrawing or borrowing much needed state money to send to other Governmental programs. This makes no sense when we have over 7,000 people with disabilities waiting for much needed help!!
Please ask your legislator not to move $42,743,523 out of DHR’s Developmental Disability program accounts and over $450 million from DCH’s Medicaid accounts until they expand disability supports to Unlock Georgia’s Waiting Lists for services. THERE ARE OVER 7,000 people waiting who are depending on their decision!
We are asking them to:
· Add funds for 2,000 MRWP services in the DHR budget
· Add funds for 630 ICWP slots in the DCH budget
· Add funds for $6M in Family Supports in the DHR budget
· Restore funds for 135 vacant MRWP services
· Add funds for a 3% rate increase for disability providers in the DHR and DCH budgets
· Protect the funds for 150 MRWP services and 100 ICWP slots for the Money Follows the Person programs in the DHR and DCH budgets
Go to http://www.unlockthewaitinglists.com/advocate.html to ACT NOW!
Go to the Georgia Budget and Policy Insitute website for analysis on current legislation being considered that could reduces state revenue even further. http://www.gbpi.org
Dave Blanchard
www.unlockthewaitinglists.com
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