The State claims that it does not force those who age out of the children’s health care plan into institutional care. It looks to me that the State certainly does do that and in a recent case, it appears that a young man died because of it.
AUSTIN – Toby Simmons’ disabilities were so severe that he couldn’t breathe or swallow without help. For the first two decades of his life, he received around-the-clock nursing care in his foster mother’s home.
But when he turned 21 and aged out of the children’s health program that paid for the care, the state said it was too costly to keep him at home. The state’s solution? An institution.
Simmons’ foster mother saw another answer: a provision that lawmakers created two years ago to keep people like Simmons at home. But despite her pleas – and warnings from Simmons’ longtime doctor that he was too fragile to live in an institution – the state denied the funding. He moved to a Killeen-area nursing home in May, and within 24 hours, he was dead. It’s still unclear why.
Lawmakers designed the provision to keep medically fragile people from being forced into lower-cost nursing homes or state schools when they would be safer in their own homes. But disability rights advocates say that state officials have interpreted it so narrowly that almost no one can qualify.
What is another way the State can skirt the law mentioned in the above quote? How about putting the providers who care for people like Toby out of business for bogus reasons? Do you think that might be happening?
