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MEDICAID
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Medicaid is a lifeline for most people with significant disabilities. It is overwhelmingly the largest funding source of both long term supports and health care for most of our constituents. State budget crises and actions by the federal government have caused many states to make drastic reductions in their Medicaid programs, resulting in devastating effects on people with disabilities, families and communities
- Ensure that Medicaid fully meets the health and long term care needs of all eligible children and adults with disabilities.
- Continue to provide a significant temporary increase in the federal share of Medicaid spending (known as federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP)) to address the economic crises facing most states and ensure that states maintain their level of effort.
- Continue to shift the major focus of Medicaid long term services and supports from institutional to community services and encourage the states to use the new Community First Choice Option to expand community-based services.
- Improve and expand home and community based services by making such services mandatory.
- Expand the ability of consumers and families to exercise control over individualized Medicaid funding.
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DIRECT SUPPORT WORKERS
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- Ensure funding so that workers who provide direct supports to people with disabilities are well trained and paid living wages and receive benefits.
- Require states to address the low wages and reimbursement rates that contribute to the direct support worker shortage.
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HEALTH CARE
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- Protect the individual entitlement to Medicare and Medicaid.
- Ensure that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not fully or partially repealed. The ACA contains many critical reforms that will benefit people with disabilities.
- Ensure that the ACA is fully funded and well implemented in order to fulfill the promise of expanded coverage, nondiscrimination in health insurance, incresed prevention and other important provisions.
- Expand training of health care providers to provide appropriate care for people with disabilities.
- Reauthorize the Combating Autism Act and support legislation to develop evidence-based services and supports for individuals on the autism spectrum.
For a more detailed look at Health Care Issues, download our Health Care Document.
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LONG TERM SERVICE & SUPPORTS
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- Ensure that the new Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) long term insurance paln is fully developed and put into place so that workers can pay premiums and be fully covered (without impoverishing themselves for Medicaid eligibility) in the event they need long term services and suports.
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EMPLOYMENT
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- Improve employment related services to people with disabilities by reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the Rehabilitation Act, increasing funding for these critical workforce development, supported employment and vocational rehabilitation programs, and ensuring that people with disabilities are included in any new employment initiative.
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HOUSING
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- Increase funding for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities, and other federal housing programs to increase the availability of affordable and accessible housing for people with disabilities.
- Provide funding for and ensure proper implementation of the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2010.
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FAMILY SUPPORTS
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- Strengthen the capacity of states to assist families in maintaining typical lifestyles for themselves and their family memebers with disabilities and address their unmet needs by establishing separate federal funding for family supports.
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EDUCATION
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- Fully fund each component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left Behind), and relevant components of the Higher Education Act.
- Assure that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act appropriately covers all students with disabilities.
- Amend IDEA to place the burden of proof on school systems under the due process provision and to allow courts to award fees to expert witnesses who are not attorneys.
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SOCIAL SECURITY
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- Protect current and future Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries and reject propolas to reduce benefits through reductions to the formula, cost-of-living adjustments, or other changes that result in lower benefits.
- Ensure adequate funds for Social Security Administration to meet the needs of the public, including eliminating the backlog in hearings for applicants with disabilities.
- Improve work incentives for people with disabilities; increase the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) level to the level used for people who are blind; and substantially increase the resource limit for SSI and annually index it for inflation.
- Eliminate marriage penalties..
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TRANSPORTATION
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- Support and expand accessible and affordable transportation options for people with disabilities.
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BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS
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- Ensure that the federal budget does not restrict eligibility, services or benefits to vulnerable individuals in order to achieve budget cuts.
- Provide sufficient funding for entitlement programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and discretionary programs such as education, housing and job training to address the significant unmet needs of people with disabilties..
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REVENUE AND TAX POLICY
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- Assure that federal tax and revenue policy provides the necessary resources to meet the vital human needs of people with disabilities. Pass tax policies to enable families of people with disabilities to stay together.
- Assure the continued viability of non-profit organizations.
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QUALITY OF SERVICES
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- Assure high quality services, supports, and access in all federally funded programs serving our constituents.
- Require federal agencies to include families, people with disabilities, and service providers in all aspects of development and assessment of quality.
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TECHNOLOGY
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- Fully fund all the provisions of the Assistive Technology Act.
- Ensure that people with disabilities have access to affordable, useable, and new technologies to support and enhance their lives.
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CIVIL RIGHTS
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- Enact protections, including sanctions, against abuse, neglect, and inappropriate use of physical and chemical restraints and seclusion in all settings.
- Increase funding to relevant federal agencies to promote stronger enforcement of civil rights laws that affect people with disabilities.
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DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES ACT
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- Reauthorize and increase funding for all components of the Developmental Disabilities Act.
- Protect and expand the authority of Protections and Advocacy Systems to investigate abuse, neglect, and deaths and to pursue class action litigation.
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RESEARCH AND PREVENTION
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- Significantly expand funding for prevention efforts and for basic and applied research conducted by federal agencies to improve quality of life.
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EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
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- Conduct oversight of existing laws and pass additional legislation that addresses the needs of people with disabilities in emergency preparedness and response efforts.
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Public Policy
Partnering Organizations
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We are national organizations that serve and advocate for people with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities. We work together to shape, expand, and protect a strong federal role that provides vital benefits, services and supports and assures civil rights for our constituency.
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The Arc
1660 L Street NW, Suite 301
Washington DC 20036-5602
United Cerebral Palsy
1660 L Street NW, Suite 700
Washington DC 20036-5602
American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)
501 3rd Street NW, Suite 200
Washington DC 20001
American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR)
1101 King Street, Suite 380
Alexandria VA 22314
Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)
1010 Wayne Avenue, Suite 920
Silver Spring MD 20910
National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities (NACDD)
1660 L Street NW, Suite 702
Washington DC 20036
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