[Nfbmo] FW: Groups oppose cuts to health care for blind

[Gary Wunder]

-----Original Message-----
From: Flash News! Service [mailto:kford at socket.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 8:37 AM
To: AA Blind, Gary Wunder
Subject: Groups oppose cuts to health care for blind

The President of the Missouri Council of the Blind, Denny Huff, and the
President of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri, Gary Wunder,
stand with Governor Nixon in saying: "Cutting healthcare for the blind,
prenatal care for women, services for people with developmental
disabilities, and child care for low-income families is not the way to
balance Missouri's budget. 
 
Complete news release below. 

FROM: Missouri Press Flash News! Service
TO: News Desk

March 13, 2012

Note: This Flash News! item is being distributed by Missouri Press Service.
MPS is not the source of the news. If you need further information or
verification, contact the person listed in the news release, do not "reply"
to this message.   

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 13, 2012

Denny Huff- President
Missouri Council of the Blind
P: (636) 262-1383
TF: (888) 362-1383
F: (314) 558-0298
Phone Cast: (816) 298-8969
DHuff at MoBlind.Org
www.moblind.org

Gary Wunder, President
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
3910 Tropical Lane, Columbia, MO 65202
P: (573) 874-1774
F: (516) 224-3671
gwunder at nfb.org
www.nfbmo.org


The Missouri Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind
of Missouri oppose balancing the budget by cutting health care for blind
Missourians.

Columbia, Missouri, and St. Louis, Missouri, March 13, 2012: The President
of the Missouri Council of the Blind, Denny Huff, and the President of the
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri, Gary Wunder, stand with
Governor Nixon in saying: "Cutting healthcare for the blind, prenatal care
for women, services for people with developmental disabilities, and child
care for low-income families is not the way to balance Missouri's budget. 

"It is just plain wrong," says Denny Huff, President of the Missouri
Council, who is himself blind."  Huff says, "This would really be
devastating to many of the recipients of the Medicaid provided for the
blind."

The House Appropriations-Health, Mental Health and Social Services Committee
propose to restore funding for higher education in part by cutting health
care for 2,858 blind people receiving the Missouri Blind Pension. Gary
Wunder, President of the National Federation of the Blind of Missouri,
notes, "Most people receiving medical assistance as a result of the Missouri
Blind Pension have a very limited income‹most are not employed. Paying
medical costs out of pocket wouldn't be an option. Many will not qualify for
private insurance because of pre-existing medical conditions, and those who
do will find the monthly premium so high that to purchase private insurance
will be impossible. 

This proposal has come from somewhere out in right field‹no discussion, no
impact statement, no consideration to how people will do without the medical
care they have been provided since 1967." 

Those blind people receiving services from Missouri HealthNet who have no
other health coverage or who have other conditions such as diabetes, kidney
failure, or glaucoma, the treatment of which requires expensive drugs, will
be forced to use the Emergency Room as their primary source of health care,
so preventative care will be out of the question, and the healthcare they
will receive will be the least comprehensive and most expensive. 

Huff continues, "Legislators need to recognize that many of the recipients
are not only blind, but have other disabilities, and many are elderly. To
take this medical coverage away from them when they have no other recourse
would in many cases be life threatening."

The Blind Pension is a state-funded program paid for through three cents per
hundred valuations on real estate property tax paid in to the Blind Pension
fund. It is an assets based program and includes MO HealthNet coverage. Even
though blind people receiving medical services as a result of the Blind
Pension Program are generally low income, their income and assets are just
high enough that they are not eligible for regular Medicaid. 

To qualify for regular Medicaid, a recipient's income must be 15 percent
below the poverty line. Thus, to continue to receive medical care, many
blind people receiving the Pension would have to give up what small assets
they have that made it necessary to apply for the Blind Pension in the first
place or go without health care. 

The two organizations of the blind that provide services and programs to
assist blind Missourians have found common ground in opposing this transfer
which, if it occurs, will be at the expense of those least able to absorb
the additional cost and reduced care.

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The purpose of the Missouri Council of the Blind is to promote the general
well-being of our members and legally blind people in Missouri, and to
support or participate in other programs promoting the best interests of
legally blind people everywhere.

THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION
SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES.


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