Below you will find information from the Disability Right Center about how to advocate for increased funding from the legislature for funding 250 more Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) slots for the Intellectual/Developmental Disability (I/DD) and Physical Disability (PD) waiver waiting lists.??

If this is important to you,? there are instructions on how to advocate with your legislators.

Martha?

*Martha K. Gabehart* | "Executive Director
"Kansas Commission on Disability Concerns (KCDC)
*Kansas Governor Laura Kelly
*900 SW Jackson, Suite 100 | Topeka, Kansas 66612
(785) 296-6525 (direct) | (785) 260-4027 (cell)

[email protected] | www.kcdcinfo.ks.gov [ [link removed] ]

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Kansans with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and Physical Disabilities (PD) are forced to suffer and wait for up to 11 years to access essential, life-sustaining Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) under the Medicaid Waiver program.

As a fellow Kansan, we ask YOU to TAKE ACTION TODAY to Eliminate the 11-year wait for HCBS disability services. Tell the Legislature to stop ignoring the needs of Kansans with disabilities by forcing them to suffer on waitlists for years. Ask them to add the funding to Eliminate the Wait HCBS disability services! It only takes 30 seconds ? click the "Take Action" button below.

The waitlist for Kansans with I/DD has skyrocketed to 5,187 Kansans waiting ? a nearly 70% increase over the last 10 years alone! The waitlist for Kansans with PD has also surged to 2,362. Not long ago, Kansas had NO waiting lists for these essential services!

Despite promises that Medicaid Managed Care would eliminate these waitlists, the opposite has happened. Since Managed Care started in 2013, both the I/DD and PD waitlists have grown dangerously large.

The politicians in Topeka have done little to address this growing problem. Over the past four years, NO new dollars have been added to the budget to reduce HCBS waitlists, despite annual pleas for increased funding from people with disabilities and the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services. Over the past EIGHT years, the state has only added a small amount of funding towards waitlists ONE time. Too little, too late. The waitlists continued to grow. Waiting upwards of 11 years for disability services is outrageous and unacceptable!

It only takes 30 seconds to help save lives! Click the "Take Action" button below, and in less than 30 seconds, you can email your State Rep. and Senator to tell them to fix the out-of-control problem of disability waitlists.

? Thankfully, there is a plan to Eliminate the 11-year Wait for disability services.
? The plan is simple and reasonable: reduce the waitlists for disability services by at least 20% this year as part of a multi-year plan to ELIMINATE THE WAIT for HCBS disability services at the end of 5 years.
? Thank you for helping your fellow Kansans who need the most help!

Take Action! [ [link removed] ]

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