Thursday, May 26, 2016

Oklahoma Legislature Attacks the Disabled

If you live or work in Oklahoma City, chances are, you've seen your Oklahoma City Firefighters on the side of the road collecting money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The MDA distributes this money to families living with a loved one with MD- they help meet the needs that Medicaid and other services don’t cover.

Anyone remember the new city ordinance that people are not allowed to step off the road or onto the median? You know, the one to keep us from having to look homeless people in the eye as we drive past? The one that makes it easier to forget that humanity comes in lots of different packages and that not everyone has the same privileges we were born with? Yes, that one. Yesterday OKC Firefighters received 15 citations for stepping onto the median to collect money for children and families living with muscular dystrophy! It looks like this fabulous city ordinance will keep us from being bothered by the idea of those “sad little children confined wheels” as well.

Oh well, at least there’s Medicaid to help those kids, right? Today Oklahoma’s state legislature is meeting to vote on a budget that guts Medicaid even further. A huge amount of our nursing homes (many of which house adults with disabilities) will no longer be able to care for their patients, because the Medicaid money won’t be there.

Luckily when the state closed institutions in favor of caring for people with disabilities in their own communities they set up the In-Home Supports Waiver! Families were supposed to receive money each year to help off-set the cost of care and save the state money (Institutions are astronomically expensive to run), never mind that there are more than 8,000 people on the waiting list for services through the waiver. No, the Oklahoma legislature has now decided that these people are expendable and this program is set to be cut today in the budget they have proposed!

And no, they can't just go pan-handling. Remember, the city doesn't want us to have to see those less fortunate than ourselves.


We cannot allow this! We will stand up for the most vulnerable in our communities! Please call your State representative NOW and tell them that the proposed budget is NOT acceptable. We will NOT allow our state legislature to give themselves are raise on the backs of our most at-risk population!


This link will lead you to your representative:
http://www.oklegislature.gov/FindMyLegislature.aspx