Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Disability Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Families press legislators on Medicaid unwinding, guardianship and disability services
Summary
Multiple residents described harm from Medicaid changes and guardianship practices, urging policy fixes and better access to services for people with developmental disabilities; witnesses described Medicaid unwinding, lost services, dental-care barriers and requests for registry reform for elderly residents in care.
Several residents and caregivers used the Charlotte County delegation forum to describe how recent program changes and state systems have affected people with disabilities and their families.
Holden McKinnon and his daughter Nadia described recent Medicaid-related cuts that disrupted home supports, resulting in lost day care, delayed equipment and care gaps; Nadia, 47 and living with cerebral palsy, was placed on an inappropriate waiver category during recent "Medicaid unwinding," the family said, affecting braces and other medical equipment. "This has caused many issues for us as a family," Holden McKinnon told the delegation.
Heather Stone spoke emotionally about guardianship reform (supporting Senate bill 1272 as framed in testimony), saying her adult son remains under state guardianship and that the system can strip basic rights; she urged lawmakers to examine practices that remove voice and choice from people with disabilities.
Melissa Harmon described difficulty obtaining dental and medical care for adults with disabilities, saying Medicaid dental providers are scarce and that approvals have been inconsistent; she said her daughter has lost multiple teeth due to access barriers.
Speakers asked the delegation to continue oversight, to work with agencies (for example, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the Agency for Health Care Administration) and to consider statutory or administrative fixes to improve access, streamline registry removal for elderly residents in care and protect family caregivers.
Next steps: delegation members invited individual follow-up with their offices and aides and said staff would connect constituents with appropriate agencies.
