I’d like to thank our legislators for unfreezing the disability budgets, allowing families to plan supports for their loved ones. However... the glowing scenarios touted for the transitioning of people with disabilities from institutional to lower costing community settings now have a bait and switch feel to them.
The allure that the monies saved by using home settings could benefit and be directed into the Adult Foster Care models, projected a community-friendly support that worked for all.
But with the state’s 2017 budget cut of millions of dollars from Adult Foster Care, the disability community once again seems to be getting the sucker end of the deal.
According the Association of Developmental Disability providers, AFC’s cost effectiveness has saved Massachusetts taxpayers millions of dollars, and that between 2000 and 2015, the amount of money MassHealth paid for nursing facility patient days fell by 37 percent. Clearly the disability community has kept up their end by building AFC communities and working with the cost cutting.
So my on my “holiday wish list” is a request to the State of Massachusetts to keep up their end of disability support by restoring the budget cuts. Put the monies back into AFC and related programs, and stop playing bait and switch with constituents.
Sharon Marie
