SC proposes to cut funding for the disabled

[SamIam]

Lawmakers are considering cutting all services for nearly 26,000 people with disabilities as South Carolina tries to plug a $560 million budget hole...

Mary Bennett, a single mother of three, said the budget cuts would mean sending her 11-year-old autistic son to an institution or giving up her job at a Columbia program that helps parents like her. Her son goes to public school a few days a week and a state-funded program cares for him the other days...

Advocates say the cuts will make it tougher for people to survive or thrive: No more door-widening or ramps for people using wheelchairs; parents caring for adult children with disabilities would lose day care programs where they learn basic skills and earn a little money; 48 percent of the state's Medicaid recipients would lose prescription coverage as the state imposes a three-drug cap instead of the current maximum of 10.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/...F5Z3V0cHJvZw--

According to this article, many developmentally disabled and autistic children and adults would have to be institutinalized as a result of the spending cuts. This seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Surely, the cost of institutional care is far more than day care. And cutting prescription benefits will only make people sicker and more likely to turn up in ER's.

[Trilby]

South Carolina : we'd rather fight than switch.

seriously, though. South Carolina. A leader in national disasters.

[lookout123]

This doesn't seem like the best place to look for savings. Which area of services do you think should take the hit though?

[Happy Monkey]

If this is what they come up with as the least necessary expenditures, they should bite the bullet and raise taxes.

[lookout123]

I'll agree to that if that is seriously the least vital service they have that hasn't been taken back to bare bones. I'm willing to bet there is still plenty of bullshit in their budget though.

[wolf]

If they could selectively delete the junkies and alcoholics from the disability roles whose only "disability" is being unable to engage in ongoing substance abuse, there would be plenty of money to fund people who actually need these services.

[Trilby]

South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.

[lookout123]

How about a 3 strikes and you're dead rule?

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by lookout123

How about a 3 strikes and you're dead rule?

Only if I can choose my own lethal method.

[lookout123]

seems fair. 3 strikes, you're dead, you choose the method but it can't take any longer than 30 minutes or cost more than $10.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by lookout123

seems fair. 3 strikes, you're dead, you choose the method but it can't take any longer than 30 minutes or cost more than $10.

Make it twenty dollars and you're on.

[lookout123]

wait, are we talking about my man-whoring or the price of death?

[Clodfobble]

For the record, if her 11-year-old son is receiving state services, she's already got it better in SC than some places. In Texas, the Medicaid Waiver List (which is what allows one to receive the type of state-funded care services this woman is afraid of losing) is currently 12 years and a few months long. For real. And you can't put your kid on the list until they have a formal diagnosis, so you're looking at a minimum age of about 14 before any state-funded services become available. And they recommend that you call in once a year to make sure everything's still okay, because if your contact information ever goes out of date, you lose your spot. They also recommend that you keep your original letter notifying you of your list spot in a safety deposit box, because if their records are ever destroyed by natural disaster, it will be the only evidence you have of ever having been on the list.

On the other hand, I don't know why her son only attends school "a few days a week." Federal law says the school district has to educate him for a full school day, in an appropriate environment. Maybe he's got other medical care (seizures, for example,) that precludes being in school all day long, I don't know.

Seriously y'all, this stuff is already funded so badly, this additional cut is almost meaningless. I guess funding 26,000 people is better than nothing, but you can't even imagine how many tens of thousands are already getting zero funding to begin with. The whole thing's a clusterfuck.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I don't know why her son only attends school "a few days a week." Federal law says the school district has to educate him for a full school day, in an appropriate environment. Maybe he's got other medical care (seizures, for example,) that precludes being in school all day long, I don't know.

I believe the law is UP TO a full-day and until age 21. I know it varies from state to state.

As far as why... Depending upon the condition/situation the child is in, he/she may not have the endurance or attention span to last a whole day. Many times they start at 30 mins in-home 1 or 2 times a week and work up to going back into the school. Some schools are outstanding and others are terrible.

One other reality that isn't so pretty -
They gotta spread the money around. By having 8 kids for an hour a day versus 1 kid for 8 hours the gov't can claim to be helping 8x as many kids.

Seriously y'all, this stuff is already funded so badly, this additional cut is almost meaningless. I guess funding 26,000 people is better than nothing, but you can't even imagine how many tens of thousands are already getting zero funding to begin with.
The whole thing's a clusterfuck.

Not just where you are, clod. It is another crystal clear example of a gov't program that is horribly disorganized, inefficient and poorly run.
After wasting months talking to the people at the state, I went another route - It took a bunch of arm-twisting/complaining/calling/threatening to elected people, but I got it done. Being a dick CAN have its benefits.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by classicman

Some schools are outstanding and others are terrible.

Oh, I hear that. We got really lucky (wasn't entirely luck, we picked the neighborhood for the school district, but we didn't know at the time which part of the school we'd be needing.)

Originally Posted by classicman

One other reality that isn't so pretty -
They gotta spread the money around. By having 8 kids for an hour a day versus 1 kid for 8 hours the gov't can claim to be helping 8x as many kids.

Absolutely. My daughter's in a program that's complete bullshit, but we can't even take her out of the program and effectively "give" our 45 minutes to someone else, because this program is indirectly a prerequisite for getting into the school district's program, which is definitely worth fighting for in our case.