Just Who Will Introduce Hayley's Bill?

Yesterday we addressed the plight of Hayley Cain and those like her in Alabama. According to the July 25th TimesDaily, Sen. Roger Bedford plans to introduce a bill to extend Medicaid waivers to cover adults with extreme physical disabilities. Now today's TD states newly elected Sen. Tammy Irons will also do so. We hope these two will be able to work together. It's not about glory; it's about what's good for those who need medical services the State is not currently providing.

According to today's article, such a bill was introduced as recently as 2007, but failed to pass. Even if the bill should pass in 2011, those who have dealt with Alabama Medicaid know how convoluted the system is. Part of the problem, indeed a major part of the problem, is limited funding. Those who currently qualify as mentally and physically disabled already have to compete for existing Medicaid dollars. Sadly, if no new funding is found, the introduction of home care for the non-mentally disabled will at least initially burden the system more and cause a decrease in services already in place.

And what of similar services that have been previously legislated? Two of our readers contacted us concerning problems in the system they have had to face. From a local nurse advocate:

We've been active in trying to get the state to do something to help those with special needs. The state of Alabama was included in a class action lawsuit but for some reason it was dismissed in our state with a settlement that didn’t provide any help.

There's that word lawsuit again. Sadly, no matter the road taken to rectify this problem on a large scale, it will be a long one.


What's up with this: Have all you guys read the TimesDaily article concerning local car thefts? Let this be a lesson to you: A woman who will steal your pants will have no qualms about stealing your car.

Shoalanda