Advocate for Medicaid/COMP Waivers

Reprinted from recent L’Arche newsletter

In Georgia, over 7,000 people with developmental disabilities are waiting to receive a Medicaid waiver, some have been waiting more than a decade. When waiver services are underfunded, an increased numbers of young people with disabilities end up stuck in nursing homes. 

Georgia’s disability community is also facing a crisis due to a shortage of Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) who are drastically underpaid ($10.30/hour is the provider rate in Georgia, L’Arche fundraises to pay our assistants more), making it extremely difficult to recruit and retain a skilled workforce. Many providers are facing the grave reality of having to close their programs if they don’t get help soon.

Georgia has a $3.7 billion budget surplus: the funds are available. Georgia’s FY23 budget will be finalized by the end of this month. The time to advocate is NOW and we need to be LOUD!   

Advocate with the disability community! Here’s a few ways:

• Sign  the petitionto give Direct Support Professionals a living wage
• Host a screening of 6,000 Waiting to tell your network about this great need
• Ask your legislators to use less than 1% of Georgia’s record $3.7 billion revenue to fund 1,500 new Medicaid waivers (a cost of $29.4 million) AND increase provider rates with a direct passthrough to increase Direct Support Professional wages.
• Attend GCDD’s Virtual Advocacy Day on February 16 to learn more about reducing the Medicaid waiver waitlist

Thank you so much for taking a few minutes to stand with the disability community!