UPDATE: STOP THE PRESSES!
Please read, and then write to the Governor, as well as your legislators! Join
us on the front lines in Berkeley and Sacramento.
Governor Brown is poised to destroy the Lanterman Act. I don't know if he truly
realizes that axing the Lanterman Act will severely impact those of us with
cerebral palsy, Autism, Down Syndrome, Asperger Syndrome, and other
developmental disabilities. Is this the same guy who appointed ED Roberts, a
quadriplegic, to head several offices such as the Dept. of Vocational
Rehabilitation in 1977???
He has ALSO proposed that those on Medi-cal, be allowed only TEN doctor or
outpatient visits per year!
Read on to see who will DIE as a result!
Governor Brown, this is a reckless proposal! We need to tailor each individual's
abilities to services that they need. Each person is an individual, and the
whole idea is that we live in the community of our choice, and not in
institutions where we are locked away, abandoned and forgotten by society and
politicians. Your sweeping budget strikes a FEAR in my heart so deep it's all I
can do to not weep and feel defeated. I am 55 years old, and was a beneficiary
of California's "golden age" of education for children with disabilities back
when an education in California actually meant something.
My parents did whatever they could to help me be as independent as I could be.
For most of my life I was very independent, but growing older with Cerebral
Palsy has meant arthritis, loss of function in my right hand, fibromyalgia, leg
pain. My spine x-rays look like that of a much older person of 85. I have
adapted to life in a wheelchair, and I'm still striving to keep as independent
as possible. Without my Regional Center service providers, I would not have much
of a life. I do not have 18 hour care, I do not need it, or want it, as I have
things that keep me busy, but many others do! They actually need somebody there
24 hours a day, due to epilepsy, autism, and other disabilities. Don't turn the
clock back. These are people who are living proof that community-based care DOES
work!
Governor, I know you want to keep the old taxes going. But I think you ALSO NEED
more taxes of the rich, and big corporations. They are NOT HURTING! How about
suing the banks that caused the housing industry to land slide? How about
halting the legislature's gas cards which they very coolly voted for
themselves!?! My IHSS workers who make meager wages in comparison to a
legislator's salary, would love gas cards too! I support taking away Cell
phones for all Government employees except first responders, and also taking
away those Government issued cars. I am sure you can find much more waste to cut
than taking away people with disabilities' civil rights. I am referring to
Olmstead, in which the Supreme Court ruled that forcing people with disabilities
to live in institutions that CAN live in a community of our choice, with
supports, is unconstitutional. Institutions cost billions more than
community-based care. You must KNOW THAT THE NURSING HOME INDUSTRY HAS LONG
SUCKED UP billions OF DOLLARS. PLEASE STOP THE MADNESS! These proposals are
inhumane!
I find it unconscionable and unacceptable that you are proposing all these cuts
to social welfare -- while NOT requiring increases in corporate taxes by the
same proportion. I am referring to the cuts to IHSS. We have already been cut
3.5 percent. To cut us again, to the tune of 8.4 percent is going to really
affect some of us in a terrible way! Let's see you increase corporate taxes by
12 percent. Either that or tell the Corporations to HIRE more People with
disabilities! How is that for an idea? There is a new generation of college
educated people with disabilities graduating soon.
I have not heard about one single corporate executive GOING TO JAIL OR losing
their multi-million-dollar benefits! I haven't heard of any upper management
white collar workers having to decide whether they need groceries, or a battery
for their power wheelchair more. Please THINK about this! It's really a day
that exposes the huge gap between those who have a lot of money, and those who
don't. Power VS Non-power. Which side are you on, Jerry?
The corporations (which the Supreme Court have deemed to be a person!?!) have
the opportunity in our country, to make as much money as they like, BUT there
is nothing promising them that they can just TAKE & TAKE without giving some
reasonable fee back. How many millions and billions do the rich need for heavens
sake?! How many cars and homes, and vacations does anybody need? When are they
going to feel the pinch? The country IS IN this downturn BECAUSE of GREED!
REALLY? You are going to charge those on SSI and other low-income people to pay
$50.00 for Emergency Room visits??? And up to $200 a day for hospital stays?
These are human beings whose incomes range from $600 to $830. Uhh Jerry, I don't
know, aren't emergency room visits by their very nature, emergencies, and not
something we can plan for? Especially if rents are so high they take most of our
income? If you cut medicaid payments to health providers, then you will indeed
see a rise in emergency room visits! I read today that 25 years ago, ER visits
WERE the CAUSE of Homelessness! I can foresee THOUSANDS living and DYING in the
streets if your proposals are put into effect!
Those who are thinking, "Who needs ten visits to the doctor?" have no idea what
the effects of this will be. Let us paint a picture: If your mother or sister
has to have kidney dialysis 3 times a week, well, that's two weeks and then they
begin dying within 30 days after these draconian limits take effect. Go here
for the best picture; (thanks, Beth!)
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/health/201001/?p=150306
People with cancer will be cut off after ten treatments. Standard treatments
for breast cancer; chemotherapy is done every two to three weeks for three to
six months. In the words of the Cancer Society, “Ten doctor’s visits would not
allow a woman to complete any one of these courses of treatment. Furthermore,
these numbers do not take into account the visits required to diagnose the
cancer."
The medicaid issue which Brown has put before the Supreme Court is a terrible
idea! If medicaid gets cut, we can expect many more deaths as a result. I
fought Arnold's cuts, and I and thousands more, will fight these draconian cuts
to vital programs. Cutting Medicaid is not the way to solve the budget crises.
We should have seen the baby boomer issue coming a DECADE ago! We should have
prepared for all the elders now entering the In-Home Services rolls. I keep
thinking of the words to an old song;
"If living were a thing that money could buy,
the rich would live and the poor would die."
The blood will be on your hands, Governor Brown, you and all those who keep
chopping the programs.
I am so weary of having to fight for the rights of the poor, the elderly, the
disabled, in other words; the disenfranchised!
But as long as I can still type and still get up in the morning, I shall carry
on.
Formerly, (appointed by Jerry Brown) on the Oakland Mayor's Commission on
Persons with Disabilities, I am a citizen with multiple disabilities.
Tamar Raine
510-893-0565
325 Vernon St.
Oakland, CA 94610
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