Legislative Hell

We are the minority.

By definition we don't have the numbers to win unless the majority bothers to care.

Some of those we represent this time will die if the policy in House bill 221 passes.

Some will lose their independent lives and go into institutions.

But we are told there are no options.

Even asking Idahoans to pay $50 more a year is not an option allowed on the table in this debate

To save those lives.

What are lives worth?

Not even $50?

Yet we must stay here and debate as if this were a sane process

A process where rational people act in the best interest of our state.

Are we collectively better as Idahoans, as people, if we willingly let people with disabilities die?

Let families suffer?

People we could have saved with mental health support?

With adequate in home care or therapy that keeps someone independent in their home?

Really.

When the crisis you create grows, everything stops.

Even our theory that this will save money.

Hospitals, funerals, prisons and emergency rooms are not cheaper than simply providing care.

Ever.

Where on earth has our civility, our compassion and humanity gone?

 

 

Joint hearings on HB221 begin at 1:30 Tuesday. Are these your values? Let your law makers know.

 

Comments

[Andrew Nelson]

Thank you for continuing the fight, and standing up for the best interests of all Idahoans.

[Pat St. Tourangeau]

Thank you for fighting on the side of justice and goodness. I just hope the voters of Idaho have a long memory, but that won't help these adults who will be unable to care for themselves, or the small school districts that will struggle with the new funding formula.

[thepoliticalgame]

A long memory or not, these adults will die, lose their way of life, cost us more--what after 221 passes, surely we can't simply sit around and wait until the next election which will ultimately amount to the exact same thing as the last election.

Listening to yesterday's hearing was hell for anyone who was actually paying attention. Every person (save 2) that came to that microphone could have been either of my two disabled siblings or the hundreds of friends I've made who benefit from developmental therapy and other Medicaid programs. My sister is rapidly approaching 45, without developmental therapy at a center in Idaho Falls, she will have to be institutionalized because her certified family home certainly isn't going to be able to care for her every single moment of every single day. My brother will be 45 in 10 years. Forcing him into "retirement" will cause him to regress to the point that he, too, will have to be institutionalized. Not only the regression, but the fact that my mother cannot quit her job to stay home to care for him every day. We wouldn't say a child no longer needs daycare once reaching the age of 3, but that is essentially what we are saying about some the people on the DD waiver.

I have followed this issue for years and I've never been as defeated as I was yesterday. I sat down and cried. I've written to the Republican members of the Health & Welfare committees and have received no response. I pray they listened yesterday and understand that the system we have now works. It is the most efficient and cost effective method we've ever developed. Eliminating it is not the answer.

[Doctors online]

I really like the idea of hell into heaven.