Today's News: California About to Screw 130,000 People
I receive help through California's In Home Supportive Services program. This pays someone (Chris) to assist me with household chores, errands and stretching. This help enables me to use my energy to go school, doctor's appointments etc.
"According to Gov. Schwarzenegger, these (In Home Supportive Services) cuts are all about balancing the budget. But how can potentially forcing 130,000 people to resort to institutional care really be cost-reducing when it's actually estimated to be four times more expensive to the state than in-home care? 'A 2006 study showed that the average... public expenditure on home...based (Medicaid) services is $44,000 less than for a person receiving institutional services,' stated Mitch LaPlante, leading disability researcher at the UCSF, in court papers."
"Liselda Lopez is with the California Department of Social Services, which oversees IHSS.
'We're hoping as I mentioned earlier that individuals will work with their communities, with their churches, with their families to figure out a way for the services to continue to be provided in a revised way so if someone can come and help them do the dishes, then that way they can stay in their own home. That's the preference.'"
You did NOT just say that. In other words, "Do it yourself, you lazy bastards. Surely you have help out there that you're just not utilizing." Come and help them DO THE DISHES?? Yes, that's what's going to keep people out of nursing homes -- someone doing the dishes. Christ.
Motherfuckers. This violates my goddamn rights. I am trying to go to school -- to try and get off government assistance, you idiots!! Some of us aren't even able to do that. And soon, I may not be able to do it, either. A lawsuit was filed on Thursday by groups who are trying to stop this. 130,000 people are in danger of losing their services by Nov. 1. The letters about the change are going out on Oct. 19. Twelve days. They are giving people twelve days notice, less than two weeks to figure out who in their "church, community or family" will be willing to shower them, assist with bowel management, make them meals and clean their kitchens afterward. People will be able to file an appeal within ten days, which may temporarily continue their IHSS help.
I knew this was coming. California is deep in the red, and in times like these the least of us get hit first. And to be honest, I am one of the lucky people who will be able to lean on family and friends if worse comes to worse. But my family and friends are having hard times too! They would basically be performing work for me for free -- and Ms. Liselda Lopez apparently thinks that this is a workable option. My mom works five days a week. Chris works six days a week, nine or ten hours a day. My neighbor has lupus, and some days cannot fully function. These are the people I am expected to get daily help from.
I feel so angry and stepped on. These decisions are being made by people who have no conception of what it means to need to have someone else wipe your butt or feed you breakfast. OH, and I almost forgot, another new rule is that they will be conducting unannounced home visits to make sure that you are not defrauding the state. How humiliating is that? Can you imagine just going about your daily business at home, and there's a knock at the door, and suddenly you have to let this stranger into your home so they can examine it, right then and there, or face loss of your benefits? That in particular irks me; that in particular reminds me of "1984". Able-bodied people and those not receiving state help have no idea how one has to expose themselves in order to get assistance.
"According to Gov. Schwarzenegger, these (In Home Supportive Services) cuts are all about balancing the budget. But how can potentially forcing 130,000 people to resort to institutional care really be cost-reducing when it's actually estimated to be four times more expensive to the state than in-home care? 'A 2006 study showed that the average... public expenditure on home...based (Medicaid) services is $44,000 less than for a person receiving institutional services,' stated Mitch LaPlante, leading disability researcher at the UCSF, in court papers."
"Liselda Lopez is with the California Department of Social Services, which oversees IHSS.
'We're hoping as I mentioned earlier that individuals will work with their communities, with their churches, with their families to figure out a way for the services to continue to be provided in a revised way so if someone can come and help them do the dishes, then that way they can stay in their own home. That's the preference.'"
You did NOT just say that. In other words, "Do it yourself, you lazy bastards. Surely you have help out there that you're just not utilizing." Come and help them DO THE DISHES?? Yes, that's what's going to keep people out of nursing homes -- someone doing the dishes. Christ.
Motherfuckers. This violates my goddamn rights. I am trying to go to school -- to try and get off government assistance, you idiots!! Some of us aren't even able to do that. And soon, I may not be able to do it, either. A lawsuit was filed on Thursday by groups who are trying to stop this. 130,000 people are in danger of losing their services by Nov. 1. The letters about the change are going out on Oct. 19. Twelve days. They are giving people twelve days notice, less than two weeks to figure out who in their "church, community or family" will be willing to shower them, assist with bowel management, make them meals and clean their kitchens afterward. People will be able to file an appeal within ten days, which may temporarily continue their IHSS help.
I knew this was coming. California is deep in the red, and in times like these the least of us get hit first. And to be honest, I am one of the lucky people who will be able to lean on family and friends if worse comes to worse. But my family and friends are having hard times too! They would basically be performing work for me for free -- and Ms. Liselda Lopez apparently thinks that this is a workable option. My mom works five days a week. Chris works six days a week, nine or ten hours a day. My neighbor has lupus, and some days cannot fully function. These are the people I am expected to get daily help from.
I feel so angry and stepped on. These decisions are being made by people who have no conception of what it means to need to have someone else wipe your butt or feed you breakfast. OH, and I almost forgot, another new rule is that they will be conducting unannounced home visits to make sure that you are not defrauding the state. How humiliating is that? Can you imagine just going about your daily business at home, and there's a knock at the door, and suddenly you have to let this stranger into your home so they can examine it, right then and there, or face loss of your benefits? That in particular irks me; that in particular reminds me of "1984". Able-bodied people and those not receiving state help have no idea how one has to expose themselves in order to get assistance.