Tom Laing, Executive Director
InterHab
The 2014 legislative session will be remembered in the
disability arena as one in which virtually no forward motion occurred.
The final nail was pounded into the coffin of
managed care carve-out advocacy, a Federal directive was reluctantly heeded to
end the under-served waiting list, a few dollars were thrown at the un-served
waiting list, and no action was taken to address our low reimbursement
rates.
In other words, our experience
was similar to many groups. Ask
teachers, environmentalists, children’s groups, fair tax advocates and you will
hear the same story. The 2014 session
was mostly frustrating and fruitless and sometimes downright destructive.
KanCare: Some talk was promoted in the Capitol
regarding KanCare vigilance but the only outcome worth noting was a “prompt
payment act” (HB 2552) to assure that vendors have a legal right to demand
prompt payment from MCOs. Otherwise,
with rare exceptions – for example Rep. Jim Ward continued to offer the active
voice of opposition – most legislators had the same shoulder-shrug as in the
past, as if to say, “What can we do? The deal is done.”
Waiver
Stewardship: As in prior years, our quality-based (Q-base) expansion
message was heard (allocate new resources equally for waiver expansion and for
capacity expansion via improved reimbursement rates) but the message was
ignored. Some money was spent, grudgingly, to end the under-served waiting list
(because the Federal government insisted) and at the end of the session,
funding for 77 of the more than 3000 on the unserved list was appropriated... an embarrassingly paltry effort. No money was
provided for rate enhancements. The outcome? Quality expansion of waiver
services will be hampered by depressed rates and the resulting workforce
shortages; and the waiting list will grow, not shrink, due to the ongoing ambivalence
to the size of the waiting list.
Family advocacy
remained alive on the autism front: Some new success was achieved in
the passage of legislation encouraging autism insurance coverage. This was a
tribute to organized autism family advocacy and a handful of legislators who
would not be told NO despite the active opposition of the insurance industry.
Some will assert that they continue to have some problems with the legislation,
but the forward motion of this effort will certainly create an evidentiary
record that this (and other) disability insurance mandates are not the
industry-wrecking laws that some insurers claimed.
InterHab member
energy is already being gathered for new mission-renewal initiatives in 2015:
With this round of KanCare debate settled for now, for better or worse,
InterHab members have already begun to make plans to revitalize Q-Base advocacy
for 2015. This State’s performance must simply be brought into the light, so
that the public and policymakers can weigh the inadequacy of current reimbursement
rates, and the increasingly shocking neglect so demonstrated by growing waiting
lists.
What is our
assignment for the coming weeks and months? Relationship building and
electoral accountability come to the front of the discussion.
Two groups of
legislators demand our immediate advocacy attention. The first group consists
of Senators, none of whom are required to run for reelection in this
election cycle. These men and women uniformly need to be reminded of the
importance of disability initiatives. The second group would be House
members who are running again in November, but who find themselves unopposed.
They will almost certainly be back in January for another term of office. Since they have no campaigns to run, they have
time to see you and talk to you. From this day forward, make it a priority to meet
and confer with them to remind them of your concerns, reintroduce them to their
neighbors with disabilities and their families whom they may have forgotten
about, and emphatically describe for them the cost of neglect when it comes to
the needs of the disability service network.
And then there is
the election: As you know, we do not advocate for or against any
candidate or question on the ballot. Your organizations, also, are politically
neutral in the tug of war that is the election process. HOWEVER, we all have a
right and a responsibility to inform one another about the actions of the
legislature, and legislators, and governors.
You all know, for the most part, whether your legislators or
governor have been good or bad for disability services. You know whether they
have been accessible and receptive. You also know that your actions have a
direct bearing on how a legislator responds.
Legislators who support you: You know these men and
women. They take your calls. They visit your organizations AND they usually
vote WITH you when they are asked to do so. Each of them is entitled to the
most appreciative words of encouragement from all of us, and your stakeholders
should be told of those legislators who do support you.
Legislators who are adrift: Some legislators, when
they do not hear compelling information about our issues, have drifted away
into an uninformed position, and have not been reliable supporters of your
efforts. They are on-again, off-again at best. These are legislators for whom
we want to redouble our educational efforts. Each of them could become a
“friend” in the coming session if we all do our jobs.
Legislators who turn their backs on you: These are
the ones who most frustrate us. They know the issues, they have been reached
out to, touched, educated, connected with your stakeholders, but they usually
do NOT vote with you, and sometimes they are openly HOSTILE to your
advocacy. What do we do with these
legislators? There is one sensible approach. Get to know the candidate that has
chosen to run against them. Educate those new candidates and introduce them
to the constituents that you work for.
And, if you like them, as citizens you have a right, on your own time,
to act in accordance to your electoral instincts.
As for the
Governor’s race? Do what you think is best, unless your “best” is a rocking-chair
position. Our government works well only when we the people make it work well.
The time for action is now.
