Medicaid Cuts Slash Services for Coloradans with Developmental Disabilities

Yet more service cuts are undoubtedly going to have a negative impact on individuals with developmental disabilities.

Cuts to Medicaid benefits for hundreds of people with developmental disabilities in Colorado have gone into effect, a move that will be devastating, caretakers and advocates say.
The change was set into motion by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, which required that Colorado's reimbursement system be standardized after an audit found discrepancies in how Medicaid dollars were being spent.
Thirty-one-year-old Colorado Springs resident Aimee Starling, whose brain was damaged after she got stuck in her mother's birth canal and was deprived of oxygen, is among those losing a hefty chunk of financial support.
Aimee's total annual payment of $29,500 is being sliced to $13,267, her mother, Kathy Starling, said. The cut eliminates many quality-of-life services Aimee has had for years, including reading tutoring, a YMCA pass, classes at Bemis School of Art and one-on-one assistance with certain activities. Starling's one-week respite care allowance of $1,331 is gone. Her daughter's dental supplement falls from $2,000 a year to $200, and a vision plan drops from $1,000 to $340.