[Nfbmo] FW: Medical Care for folks who are blind

[Gary Wunder]

  _____  

From: Ronald Richard [mailto:Ronald.Richard at senate.mo.gov] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 11:15 AM
To: gwunder at earthlink.net
Subject: RE: Medical Care for folks who are blind



Dear Gary,

 

Thank you for your email.  I understand your concern on this issue.  While I
do believe we need to make cuts to produce a balanced state budget, I am not
in favor of cutting Medicaid funding for blind individuals.  Restoring
funding for higher education is important to me, but not if that means
taking funding from the blind.

 

Please let me know if I can be of further service.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ron Richard

Senate District 32

 

 

From: Gary Wunder [mailto:GWunder at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 4:32 PM
To: Ronald Richard
Subject: Medical Care for folks who are blind

 

Dear Senator Richard:

 

I am concerned about the elimination of the medical care for blind people
that is being considered by the Senate now that it has been passed by the
Missouri House of Representatives. I write as a representative of hundreds
of blind people; I do not write as one who will be much affected by these
changes, but as one who knows many who will.

 

Any change of this magnitude should be studied before it is implemented.
Blind citizens of Missouri should be made aware of any change long in
advance so that they can make what ever arrangements are possible to see to
their insurance. The changes that have been proposed are not well studied.
Where people will come up with the extra money to buy health insurance and
how many will actually qualify for it is unknown. Some may qualify for
Medicare part D, but, even in these cases, it is hard to know where they
will come up with the additional $5000 it may cost to cover the cost of
drugs they take.

 

The act of pitting blind people against higher education is reprehensible.
Blind people care about higher education just as much as any other group. In
fact, the few of us who have good jobs can argue that higher education is
the very reason that we have the jobs we do. I started by working in a
sheltered workshop putting bolts on washers, a piece rate job that paid less
than the federal minimum wage. I moved to making pins and earned the
princely sum of $1.60 an hour, the actual minimum wage at that time. 

 

Fortunately I am a proud beneficiary of services from the federal state
relationship that allowed me to go to college, with you and other taxpayers
paying my way. My understanding was that the taxpayers offered to help in
every way they could if I would commit to do my best to find a job and
contribute as a taxpayer. I took the contract that we made together quite
seriously and have worked for Alpha Labs, the Columbia daily Tribune, the
University of Missouri, and now the National Federation of the Blind. I edit
the Braille Monitor Magazine which goes to more than 30,000 men and women
who are either blind or care about blind people. No doubt this is the place
we want to get with most blind people, but there is no way to pretend that
this is the way it is now. Most blind people I know are financially
strapped; many are more medically dependent than the average person you
would meet on the street. The medications they take are expensive. Many are
diabetics. A goodly number have problems with their kidneys that require
numerous visits to their physicians.

 

Before we take drastic action, let's study what we might do, understand the
ramifications, and give people who may experience a significant change in
their lives an opportunity to make some accommodation for these changes. I
don't argue that things must always stay as they are, only that they should
not be changed precipitously. There are lives at stake here, something
recognized since 1967. Health care provisions that people have come to rely
on should not be changed overnight. 

 

Thank you for considering both my personal views and the views of the 300
plus blind people who care enough to donate their time and energy to the
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri.

 

Gary Wunder