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Tell the Kansas Legislature to Eliminate the 11-year Waitlist for Disability Services!
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
What are HCBS Waiver Services? What are the Life-Affirming Services Kansans are Forced to Wait up to 11 years for?
In Kansas, these HCBS services are critically important to individuals with disabilities’ daily lives. They provide in-home supports to help people with disabilities do the activities of daily living that they can’t do because of their disabilities. They help people with disabilities have the supports they need to live productive lives as full citizens in our society. HCBS Waiver services for Kansans with I/DD and PD are separate from Medicaid healthcare plans, and can include the following services:
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Learn More About the Waitlist Problem in Kansas
"It [the longest IDD and PD waitlists in Kansas history] really has become the darkest of dark stains on the public policy landscape in the state of Kansas.”
DRC Executive Director, Rocky Nichols, and Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities Executive Director, Sara Hart Weir, sat down with the Kansas Reflector recently to talk about just how dire the waiting list has become for thousands of Kansans with disabilities.
Via the Kansas Reflector: "The Elskamp family enrolled their now 22-year-old daughter, Sheridan, on a waitlist for state Medicaid-funded waiver services in 2013. When Sheridan neared the end of high school in 2022, the family reached out to her case manager. They were shocked when the case manager told them the waitlist was now 10 years or longer.
Via the Kansas Reflector: "The Sickels family finally has government-supported disability services — 14 years after they first applied for their son. Meet the Kansans who have spent years languishing on the state’s waitlist to help manage their needs. Advocates say more must be done."
Via the Kansas Reflector: "Elaine Legitt is focused on conquering her cancer. She didn’t anticipate the frustrations of also having to wade through issues with the state’s physical disability waitlist, becoming one of thousands of Kansans who deal with long wait times for health care services."