It's not about the money.

I am getting ready to put some testimony together for various committees for the Kansas legislature. I've been sitting in meetings listening to testimony and having many meetings with legislators. I have a constant feeling that no one really gets it. The legislators keep talking about costs and money and the economy. I hear agencies and providers talking about caseloads and money and demand for services. I see people lining up in two lines, one behind deeper budget cuts, the other behind raising taxes. When did life become such a dichotomy?

I don't hear anyone talking about people.

I am trying to figure out the message. Is it that those wanting deeper cuts really think there is that much waste? Or do they think that someone in a coma is freeloading off the state? Is it that those wanting additional taxes think we don't pay enough? It's enough to make my head spin.

And then I go talk to Joe. Joe was jumped about 16 years ago, beaten and stuffed into the trunk of his car. The only reason he lived is because a construction worker on the way to work heard him moaning the next morning. He needed to have someone with him at all times at first. His mother went to visit him at the nursing home one day to bring him clean laundry. She left with the clean laundry and Joe in the passenger seat. He was asked to leave, but he still couldn't be left alone. His mother quit work and did all that she could to get Joe heading in the right direction, first hiring staff and then helping him get set up in his own place. She died a month later.

Fast forward 16 years. Joe is still in his own place and now has a 3 wheel bike. He goes to the grocery store every day, when the weather is nice, to pick up groceries for his neighbors. He walks dogs and delivers newspapers. He is an important part of his community and gives back. He has no paid services and is off Medicaid now. His disability has not gone away. His community has been mobilized, mostly by him.

Joe is the reason we need stop cutting services funded by Medicaid. There are 1600 other Joe's waiting for the chance Joe got. Not a chance to be dependent on the state, but the chance to move through a system that has been set up to help people become connected in the community and stop using services. The 1600 people who are waiting are using far more resources while they are in limbo, whether that be in nursing homes that cost 3x more, or at home with family who have given up jobs and no longer pay taxes.

Services need to be funded because it's the right thing to do~ for Joe, for the 1600 people on the waiting list and for the future Joe's who could be someone you know.

Perhaps I knew what I needed to say all along.