Congress is rushing to pass a dangerous health care reform bill by September 30 that is bad for people with disabilities . Just like their previous Obamacare repeal attempts, the new proposal called Cassidy-Graham is predicted to contain a devastating 25% cut to Medicaid and weakens key health care protections for children and adults with disabilities.
Cuts to Medicaid mean cuts to 20 Wisconsin programs like Family Care, IRIS, the Children’s waiver, BadgerCare, mental health programs, Katie Beckett, autism services, personal care, and important therapies like speech, OT and PT. Many of these are “optional services” in Medicaid and are at significant risk of being cut or eliminated.
See the letter The Arc Wisconsin and affiliated chapters sent to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee which is holding a hearing September 25: Letter from The Arc Wisconsin – Concerns about Graham-Cassidy bill
See our new resource on impacts for people with autism in Wisconsin: Graham-Cassidy Impacts on People with autism in WI
Read full analysis of the bill’s impacts here.
Read the full bill here.
What can you do? Three Steps
1. Call U.S. Senators Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin as well as your U.S. House Representative (Kind, Pocan, Duffy, Grothman, Sensenbrenner, Gallagher, Moore or Ryan) and let them know how harmful this bill will be to people with disabilities. Cuts to Medicaid put individuals with disabilities at risk of losing essential services that allow them to live and work in the community.Tell your story!
Call the main Capitol line to be connected to any of your reps: (202) 224-3121
2. Act Fast (by Monday 9/25 by 9AM) to submit testimony for the U.S. Senate hearing. Send your story with your full name and address to: gchcomments@finance.senate.gov
3. Call your local media (newspaper, radio, TV) and offer to tell your story about Medicaid supports in Wisconsin and why you are concerned about this bill.
