VOR has submitted a letter to the Governor of every state, and also sent emails to the National Governors Association, the Republican Governors Association, and the Democratic Governors Association, in hopes that they will unite against making any cuts to Medicaid.
We want the Governors to understand how severely these cuts will harm their constituents in the I/DD, autism, mental health, and aging communities. We want them to realize that these cuts will futher impact their state hospital systems, as people who lose Medicaid will turn to emergency rooms far more frequently. Furthermore, Medicaid cust will further strain their own state budgets, while lowering their credit ratings and making it more diffilcult to borrow funds to build roads, schools, and infrastructure.
We ask our members to please share these resources with your own State Governors.
VOR has submitted a letter to each Director of State Developmental Disabilities Services calling for them to reach out to their Governors and members or the House and Senate to highlight their concerns with proposed cuts to Medicaid.
We ask our members to please share these resources with your own State DD Services and with the providers of residential services for your family members with I/DD and autism.
VOR has sent a letter of congratulations to the new Director of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
We hope to work with him and his team to protect people with I/DD and autism, to protect the funding they rely upon, and to support a stronger workforce of Direct Support Professionals.
VOR has submitted a letter to the Trump Transition Team outlining some of our priorities for the incoming administration.
The President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities held its first in-person meetings since 2019 on September 25 and 26, 2024. This year's committee was notable in that self-advocates comprised a majority of committee members.
While the reports from HHS - sponsored agencies were informative and covered a variety of issues, all of the subject matter was directed to Home- and Community-Based Services. People with intellectual disabilities who receive long-term supports and services through the non-HCBS silo of Medicaid were once again left out of the conversation.
On August 30 and September 2, 2024, the Washington Post published a series of highly biased articles opposing sheltered workshops and 14(c). The articles went beyond mere bias. They cherry-picked comments from both sides and made several statements misrepresenting the programs and those that provide these opportunities. Several VOR members wrote to the Post to complain. Only one paper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which reprinted the Post's stories, printed a full response to the articles.
Attached below are a few of those letters.
