Disability rights help our neighbors live and work

When politicians frame disability rights as extras they erase the people who sit beside us in pews pack lunches at our tables and clock in across Minnesota every day Disabled people are not a special interest group Cutting the policies that make independent living doable is exclusion by design Minnesota s Medicaid programs Therapeutic Assistance and MinnesotaCare provide vitality coverage to roughly one in four residents and spend largest part funds on people with disabilities or older adults covering about half of long term care costs Our state also depends on home and area based services HCBS waivers such as CADI and the DD waiver to keep people integrated at home and at work Destabilizing federal Medicaid help or adding red tape doesn t trim waste it cuts the hours equipment and care that make participation attainable Related Welsch v Likins a landmark legal incident for disability rights in Minnesota Here s what the evidence shows Medicaid and MinnesotaCare are foundational to public life here not fringe programs They cover about a quarter of Minnesotans and finance roughly half of long term care statewide Minnesota s HCBS waivers keep people in neighborhood settings rather than institutions the point of independence Nationally proposals to shrink Medicaid would increase the uninsured and disproportionately harm disabled people who rely on it The employment gap is real In of people with disabilities were employed compared with of nondisabled peers Democracy is on the line Any approach that makes it harder for disabled Minnesotans to vote silences a part of our locality State law and practice provide multiple safeguards assistance at the polls accessible ballot marking devices language access and curbside voting but these only matter if they are preserved funded and implemented well every balloting Here s what Minnesota s leaders should do Hold the line on Medicaid Oppose federal cuts and administrative blockades that would shrink eligibility reduce HCBS maximum or shift costs onto families and counties Invest in HCBS workforce and stability Our waivers work only if we can recruit and retain direct care workers and keep services predictable statewide Make voting access non negotiable Maintain and expand accessible machines curbside options transportation supports and multi-format assistance every cycle Basic services are at hazard Minnesota prides itself on being practical and neighborly We know what works stable Medicaid funding strong home and group based services and a voting system that welcomes every eligible voter The alternative is not chosen abstract waste trimmed from a spreadsheet It s a neighbor losing a job because a personal care shift got cut It is a parent forced into a nursing facility miles from family It is a voter missing a ballot because transportation fell through Disabled Minnesotans live and work among us because we have chosen together to build the supports that make independence feasible Calling those supports extras doesn t make them unnecessary It just makes our communities smaller Matthew Murphy is a Minneapolis based writer and accessibility focused technical communicator working on immigrant rights region safety and evidence forward masses guides He can be reached at telecommatt gmail com The post Disability rights help our neighbors live and work appeared first on MinnPost