"The
moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the
dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly;
those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
" Hubert Humphrey said that. If so, the Wyoming legislature has failed the
test.
That
haunting description, “those who are in the shadows of life,” refers most
poignantly and painfully to our neighbors with developmental disabilities, and
those who love and care for them. The shadows of life are places occupied by
people who have no voice, no political access, people whose goals and
aspirations are subjected to the whims and values of the agenda of politicians.
The
shadows of life are places legislators seldom visit. Instead they rely on
reports, fiscal statements, statistics, and notions. To most lawmakers, the people
who live in those shadows are little but the subjects of handwringing taunts
about the costs of government.
For
years legislators have ignored the needs of people with developmental
disabilities who have languished without services on lengthy wait lists. Legislators
have allowed the wait list to grow from 68 in 2003 to more than 650 today. The
legislature, by and large, has viewed this as a cost control problem, not as
the human struggle it is for the disabled and their families.
This
year, the legislature came up with one of its quintessential solutions. They
passed a bill with the proclaimed objective of optimizing “the services provided to current clients and to extend
appropriate services to persons currently on waiting lists for waiver services.”
Then they added words that clearly reflect their values, i.e. “ within the
current budget.”
Don’t blame the
Wyoming Department of Health. It’s doing the best it can to implement a bad
law. They’ve been ordered to serve current clients as well as those on the wait
list without any additional funding. In other words, the legislature wants
current developmentally disabled clients to receive fewer services than they
need so that those on the wait list can receive fewer services than they need.
This injustice is
not the result of a budget crisis.
The annual cost
of eliminating the entire wait list is 24 million dollars. The federal government picks up half of that
tab. The state’s share is, therefore, about one-quarter of the 47 million dollars these same state legislators
squandered by their ill-advised failure to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.
This is also the same legislature that irrationally continues to sock away
hundreds of millions of tax-collected dollars in reserve funds with no defined
purpose. Additionally, Wyoming’s general fund revenues are on pace to exceed projections for
2013 by approximately $300 million.
Wyoming’s
legislators are not making these choices out of a desperate need to address
severe budget deficits, as are lawmakers in many states. Wyoming has the money
to serve these families but its legislators don’t have the interest. The
Department of Health deserves kudos for making the best of the hand dealt them
by the legislature. They’ve worked hard to get stakeholder input and to
redesign the program within the legislative constraints.
But face
the facts. The Wyoming legislature has made a values decision. It values cost
cutting more than it values the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in
our state. They are hoping those folks remain in the shadows. I am hoping they
don’t.
The
developmentally disabled, their families and advocates should flood the Capitol
Building. They should occupy the rotunda of the building, filling it with the
faces of the people who will suffer the impact of the choice the legislature
made. These politicians don’t want to come face-to-face with their
choices. They are counting on you
remaining in the shadows, fearful and voiceless. Don’t let them get away that
easy.
Perhaps
Hubert Humphrey should have said, "The moral test of a people is how we all speak up
for those who are in the shadows of life.”
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