Why Should You Care about Medicaid Funding?
Dr. Michelle Powers, Chief Executive Officer, Northern Hills Training Center
In South Dakota, approximately 4,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) rely on Medicaid for their long-term care and support needs. But that 4,000 is not just a number – these are real people who depend on this program for their day-to-day needs. But, perhaps that’s not enough of a reason to consider why you should care about Medicaid funding.
I am willing to bet you have a personal connection to Medicaid and you might not even realize it. Medicaid supports people who might be your co-worker, the person who helped you check out at the grocery store, or the individual who served you a meal last week. My own personal connection to Medicaid comes from my 20-year-old daughter who has a developmental disability.
My other connection to Medicaid comes from my role as chief executive officer for Northern Hills Training Center (NTHC), a community-based support provider, where our mission is to “support people to have meaningful lives”. We exist exclusively to be of assistance to adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and are privileged to support no less than 125 individuals in Spearfish and surrounding communities. You interact with these individuals daily, whether you realize it or not. They are employed in settings across the community, they volunteer, attend local events, and contribute to the Spearfish economy in the same ways you and I do.
For NHTC, almost 90% of the funds we receive are generated through the Medicaid program. These are the funds which pay for staff who help people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities to live independently, have careers and thrive in our community. Our staff are the backbone of our organization, and they do everything from coming to an individual’s home to help them with activities of daily life, help them find and keep a job they love, providing transportation to that job, and ensure they can participate in community events and maintain meaningful relationships. We do this day in and day out, feeling privileged to be a part of these individuals lives.
NHTC and its services fuel local economies, not only by creating direct support jobs, but also by helping people with I/DD to stay employed, and allowing their family members or caregivers to stay in the workforce too. Community providers enable disabled workers to secure employment in high-demand jobs while also being a top driver of job creation themselves, with direct support being the fastest-growing profession over the next decade.
Unfortunately, proposals to slash Medicaid funding threaten to unravel the vital support system thousands of South Dakotans with intellectual and developmental disabilities rely on to remain in their homes and communities.
Medicaid is not just a line item in the federal budget, it is a lifeline for our family, friends, and neighbors. As lawmakers consider drastic cuts to Medicaid funding, they risk dismantling a system that allows people with disabilities–and the people who care for them–to live, work and thrive in their communities.
Medicaid is funded by our state with matching funds from the federal government. Any cuts to federal funding for Medicaid will force our state to make impossible choices about crucial and life-saving programs and services.
Significant cuts to federal Medicaid funding will place additional financial strain on the state budget, forcing us to absorb the increased costs. State budgets must prioritize mandatory Medicaid services, leaving optional services like NHTC as a community-based service vulnerable to reductions. Without access to community-based services, people with I/DD will either go without the support they need or end up in high-cost, state-run institutions, the very settings we have spent 50 years and more trying to close.
If you’ve read this far, I ask you to decide if you care enough about Medicaid to call on Senators Thune and Rounds and Representative Johnson to protect people with disabilities and their families, our economy, and our communities by rejecting Medicaid cuts, whether those cuts are proposed through the reconciliation package or through some other federal action.
Simply stated, we need to strengthen–not weaken–our commitment to those with I/DD. Doing so requires both federal and state investments in these services and in the direct support professionals who deliver those services day in and day out.
To contact Senator Thune (Rapid City office) – Phone: (605) 348-7551
To contact Senator Round (Rapid City office) – Phone: (605) 343-5035
To contact Congressman Johnson (Rapid City office) – Phone: (605) 646-6454
(From the Editor – My wife penned this column which recently appeared in papers out west regarding one of the major items that Medicaid funding provides that often gets lost in debates; support for those with intellectual disabilities to live and work in their home communities. – pp)
Great points by Dr. Powers. South Dakotans voted to expand Medicaid because they know what it means to so many of our neighbors. Let’s hope that our representatives in Congress listen to that majority.
It is likely that Medicaid expansion will be rolled back, and people will have to buy into their employers’ health insurance plans the way they did before Medicaid expansion.
Opponents of Medicaid expansion predicted that the Federal government would rescind the offer to pay the extra cost to the states of Medicaid expansion. We told you the state could not afford to cover the cost of Medicaid expansion if the federal government didn’t pay for it as promised.
We told you this would happen. We told you it was a bad idea. We pointed out the difficulties grttung the promised money for the Lewis and Clark water system.
We warned you. You didn’t listen. You voted for Medicaid expansion because you didn’t think it was going to cost you any money, it was going to be somebody else’s money.
The only way to keep Medicaid going in South Dakota, will be a state income tax, because the federal money is going to be cut.
So you can blather on and on about this, but remember who is going to pay for it.
Remind me, which party is pushing for these cuts?
MAGA doesn’t care about post-borns. Maybe check with your church, they get tax breaks, just don’t be asking any of the billionaires, they need more and already “pay enough” I am told.
The Magas care about the country. We don’t care about people who can buy health insurance theouhh their employer but figured out a way to bring their household income down just enough to qualify for Medicaid
You mean like farmers? The group who pushed for medicaid expansion to cover their wives while they run multi-million dollar operations and show no income.
Or like disabled people that can’t hold a job?
if Medicaid expansion is rolled back, the children, elderly and disabled will still be eligible.
The people who qualified after Medicaid was expanded will have to buy health insurance from their employers again, as they did before, when their incomes disqualified them.
They aren’t going to like that, so the state will have to figure out how to pay for it.
Nine states, Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia, all have trigger laws which will cut Medicaid expansion as soon as the federal government stops funding it.
Ten states, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming, never took the bait in the first place, so they are safe, too.
If the legislature would get their heads out of social issues, they would realize that if they don’t address the looming threat, they will have to close all the school libraries to help pay for Medicaid. We won’t have to worry about boys in girls’ sports, either, because there won’t be any money for athletic programs.
Dr Powers’ plea to maintain Medicaid’s current expanded enrollment overlooks the question of how are we going to pay for it?
according to one source, in South Dakota, Medicaid expansion added 21.700 people for a total enrollment of 118,100.
it’s about $150,000,000 to keep all these extra people on Medicaid
what are the school libraries costing us?