You’ve seen this story unfold before: Gov. Corbett alleges
Pennsylvania is in such dire straits that cuts must be made to programs that working
Pennsylvanians depend on, while he gives tax credits to out-of-state
corporations under the guise of job creation.
Well he’s at it again.
This week DPW implemented a policy it discreetly announced
in August to begin collecting co-pays from parents for services provided to
their disabled children. Yep, disabled
kids.
Last week DPW Sec. Gary Alexander defended the policy only after those
affected and their advocates converged on the Capitol to voice their disapproval.
Alexander devised the plan in an effort to make massive
cuts in DPW’s budget, a task bestowed upon him by the GOP in 2011.
Under the new policy a family with a disabled child (or children) will
have to pay up to 5% of their total household income if they earn 200% of the
federal poverty level (about $46,000 a year for a family of four).
It will easily cost families thousands of dollars annually to continue
receiving treatment. Some of these children have several medically necessary therapies,
diagnostic tests and other services per week. The families I’ve spoken to have said
it will force tough decisions between co-payments and basic necessities like
housing and food.
The real kicker is in the past, DPW required oversight from the General Assembly or the Independent Regulatory Review Commission to put these kinds of harsh changes in place, but due to a GOP-backed law approved in 2011 Alexander (aka the Gov. Corbett ax wielder) can exercise ultimate control over these decisions.
What’s really
absurd is the new policy isn’t even necessary.
According to the Pennsylvania Health Law Project if DPW were to actually enforce the existing Autism
Insurance Coverage Law (on the books since 2008) DPW could save $25 million a
year. This new cockamamie plan would only save about $5 million while costing Pennsylvania’s
thousands of working families with disabled kids nearly double that since when
DPW pays for the services, the feds kick-in about 40 cents on the dollar to
help.
The icing on the cake is that DPW has miscalculated
the household income for some families by as much as $100,000.
Add this to the list of senseless plans the Corbett administration
has rushed to implement and completely mismanaged. Check back regularly to read more on the
Corbett administration’s dysfunction: “Working Hard…to prove government doesn’t
work.”
