Letter to the editor: Save Medicaid funding for intellectually disabled

To the editor:

Across the state of Iowa, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) rely on an array of support services in order to live, work and thrive in their communities.

Nationally, 69% of the community providers that deliver these services are turning away new referrals while 39% are discontinuing existing services because they lack the funding needed to recruit and retain qualified direct support professionals.

This puts access to services in jeopardy at a time when nearly 512,000 disabled Americans are languishing on their states’ waiting lists. Moreover, supported employment programs are directly affected due to potential lack of funding, possibly leading to closure of programs and reduced access to essential services which may hinder these individual’s ability to find and maintain employment in their communities.

Now another crisis looms. Community-based services are almost exclusively funded by Medicaid, and in Congress the House recently approved a budget resolution directing the committee that oversees Medicaid to slash $880 billion in spending. Such a drastic cut will all but dismantle the federal Medicaid program, leaving hundreds of thousands more Americans without the services they need.

As a team member at Imagine the Possibilities, I am grateful for our Iowa Association of Community Providers (IACP) colleagues as well as our legislative offices for recent conversations regarding concerns and consequences should Medicaid funding be cut.

I am hopeful that if Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Sen. Joni Ernst and Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn, Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra agree that our community is stronger when it includes individuals with disabilities, they will reject any proposals to cut funding for the federal Medicaid program.

Cheryl Plank, chief strategic advancement officer of Imagine the Possibilities
Burlington, Iowa