FEATURED ARTICLE
Anne Lumley
AS MANY OF US KNOW, one of the most difficult realities that people with disabilities face is the overwhelming amount of bureaucracy with governmental services and benefits.
What was once a difficult system has become a quagmire of paperwork, cuts in services, and red tape. Medicaid eligibility is a critical issue for the millions of people who require assistance with daily living. The bipartisan Joint Select Commission on Deficit Reduction which was created
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by virtue of the recently passed Budget Control Act is charged with developing a deficit reduction plan to cut an additional $1.2 trillion over ten years. This reduction is in addition to over $900 billion in cuts that have already been negotiated in FY2011 and will go into effect in FY 2012.
One young man affected by these staggering cuts is David Taylor, but he’s not simply accepting the government run-around. This courageous young man has taken a stand for his legal rights, and the rights of others whose quality of life largely depends on government benefits. David’s story is really about the unwillingness of a man to simply accept less
than he deserves and his fight for the rights due the entire developmental disabilities world.
In September of this year, David submitted his Continued Needs Review, or CNR, as he does every year. The state alerted David that he would receive benefits through only the end of this calendar year and based on a proposed change to guidelines, needed to re-write his plan and resubmit. David believes that the problem with that response is twofold: first, if he were to re-write his plan as instructed, he would lose his right to appeal the decision on the originally submitted plan. Secondly, David believes the denial of his benefits is a direct
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