Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson says the state faces its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression -- and it's not over.
"The cuts we are making now are to basic services," Parkinson said last week.
While we're waiting to see how the math whizzes in the state legislature try to solve the problem without doing anything that could hurt their re-election chances, the journalists at the Kansas Health Institute are doing some great reporting on how hard state budget cuts are likely to hurt real people.
For example, Dave Ranney reports:
More than 5,700According to Ranney, "Advocates for the disabled say it makes no sense to cut spending orKansans with physical or developmental disabilities are waiting for
Medicaid-funded services designed to keep them out of a nursing home or
state hospital.
About 2,000 people on the waiting list aredevelopmentally disabled children or adults who are receiving some
government-funded services but are waiting for others for which they
are eligible.
But almost 3,800 of the disabled are receiving none of theassistance for which they are eligible and it is not uncommon for a person to wait years before the services become available.
"Noone would stand for 4,000 kids on a waiting list to get into
kindergarten but somehow a 4,000-plus waiting list for people with
disabilities is seen as acceptable," said Tom Laing, executive director for Interhab,
an association representing most of the state's community based
programs for people with developmental disabilities. "I see this
as a sheer act of discrimination on the state's part."
underfund the programs that help people live in their homes instead of
nursing homes or state hospitals because doing so only ends up costing
the state more in the long run."
Read the full story here. And check back -- we'll be running more links to this KHI series throughout the week.
Comments (0)