Petition Update 9/18: ----- Ben Barnes from The Office of Policy & Managment announced today that DDS will receive more than $7.5 million in rescission cuts. Last Sunday the Hartford Courant released an article identifying $48 million in massive overspending on overtime at DDS. Despite this, once again, the administration has chosen to target cuts in a way that disproportionately affects families in need, while barely addressing waste, mismanagement and overtime at DDS. Here is the article: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-state-overtime-costs-soar-0913-20150913-story.html Contact Governor Malloy at 1-800-406-1527 today and every day until these cuts are restored. This is not negotiable. Breakdown of DDS Cuts: Employment Opportunities and Day Services - $3,000,000 Community Residential Services - $1,800,000 Voluntary Service - $297,312 Personal Services - $1,500,000 Other Expenses - $206,194 Cooperative Placements Program - $613,621 Supplemental Payments for Medical Services - $150,000 More information to follow. ============================================ My name is Michelle Rivelli and I am the mother of Jessica, who has autism and intellectual disabilities. I am also a pediatrician in Shelton. I ask you to sign this petition about the current state of the DDS budget cuts. I know many of you have written letters and been up to the legislature, but for those of you who have not had the opportunity to do so, I wanted to provide you with the current state of the budget cuts and what your options are at this time. There have been enormous cuts to DDS, this year being the most profound and far reaching. For the first time, day program funding for 2016-2017 grads is totally eliminated, VSP is cut 60% and residential/home supports are drastically cut. The only funding preserved is for personal services (i.e. for DDS employees, which in reality over 90% of this will go to state employees at Southbury Training School and the other DDS regional centers). Unless the three line items highlighted above get added back into the budget, our children will have to stay home after they graduate at age 21 years! Additionally, any other supports families have been receiving will be significantly cut. There will be no hope of any residential services until the death of both parents or other profound crisis. The only hope we have is to contact the legislators on the health subcommittee of appropriations to let them know how this will affect our families before April 30th when they make their recommendations. In addition to this petition, contacting the leadership of appropriations will be helpful once the budget gets to the main appropriations committee in May. Unfortunately the only thing that seems to have influence in this process is the number of individuals who contact legislators about specific issues. I am listing the names and contact information for the subcommittee and leadership in Hartford. Your first contact should be your own state senator and representative. You can find them on the www.cga.ct.gov website. There is additional information on the cga website and on the ARC of CT website about how to contact legislators. Then if you have time, contact the individuals below. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Some of the legislators have to be contacted through their specific websites rather than via regular e-mail. I totally understand that none of us have time to do this when we are trying to keep things together with our kids at home. However, after meeting with numerous legislators and advocacy groups, these contacts are the only way to ensure our children have a safety net going forward. We do have strength in numbers. Sign this petition to have a voice to protect our special needs children! Feel free to send a letter/call/Email: CO-CHAIRPERSONS of health subcommittee of appropriations (note **=members of ID/DD caucus), **Sen. Terry Gerratana (D-S6) Room 3002, LOB (860)240-0584 [email protected] Rep. Patricia Dillon (D-92) Room 4019, LOB (860) 240-8585 [email protected] MEMBERS: for all of the Republicans you need to go on their websites to e-mail, for the democrats use the formula--- [email protected] **Sen. Paul Formica (R-S20) Room 3901, LOB (860) 240-0574 **Rep. Whit Betts (R-78) Room 4200, LOB (860) 240-8700 **Rep. Catherine Abercrombie (D-83) Room 2002, LOB (860) 240-0492 **Rep. Kevin Ryan (D-139) Room 4108, LOB (860) 240-8585 Rep. Andre Baker, Jr. (D-124) Room 5008, LOB (860) 240-8585 **Rep. Peter Tercyak (D-26) Room 3804, LOB (860) 240-8585 Rep. Juan Candelaria (D-95) Room 1804, LOB (860) 240-8585 **Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R-106) Room 4053, LOB (860) 240-8700 **Rep. Susan Johnson (D-49) Room 5007, LOB (860) 240-8585 **Rep. Jay Case (R-63) Room 2004, LOB (860) 240-8700 Rep. Robyn Porter (D-94) Room 2704, LOB (860) 240-8585 **Rep. Kathleen McCarty (R-38) Room 4046, LOB (860) 240-8700 LEADERSHIP OF APPROPRIATIONS-Co-chairs: **Senator Beth Bye, Deputy Majority Leader(D5)1-800-842-1420, need to e-mail via link on her website Representative Toni Walker, (D-93) , 1-800-842-8267 [email protected] LEADERSHIP OF LEGISLATURE: Senate President Martin Looney, (D-11), (800)-842-1420, must go on website to e-mail Senator Bob Duff, Senate Majority Leader (D-25), (800)-842-1420, [email protected] Rep. Joe Aresimowic, House Majority Leader (D-30), (860) 240-8489 [email protected] Rep. Brendan Sharkey, Speaker of the House (D-88),1-800-842-1902, [email protected] DR. RIVELLI'S LETTER TO STATE LEGISLATORS: The developmental disability community is currently experiencing a crisis due to unprecedented cuts to essential DDS services and slashing of funds to all other critical services. I know this because as a pediatrician I am seeing my patients affected. Closer to home, as the parent of a 20 year old with autism and intellectual...

Kids with cancer are treated with 40 year old drugs. They do not get the most promising drugs to save their lives.

The Schools have been neglected for decades and is in a state of disrepair. These children are the responsibility of the state and the governor's recent veto sent the wrong signal to the residents of the Schools. They deserve a quality education in a safe environment.

My daughter and her husband now have a baby boy, because they had the money to have IVF. Many others have no chance! This is a medical condition and should be covered by insurance.

I suffer from chronic back and neck pain and I am forced to either live in pain or take addicting and potentially deadly pain killers. I know that marijuana is much safer and it isn't addicting at all. It helps with my pain, but I can't legally use it. I am personally affected, and I would get off all of the pain medication if I could legally use marijuana. Also, I know at least 10 more people in my same situation. It is also wonderful for treating insomnia which I also suffer from. I also just read about a man with COPD or chronic obstructive pulminary disorder who is now able to work and not be on oxygen anymore all because of medical marijuana. I have also been diagnosed with COPD.

I have too many clients struggling to make ends meet, and now our government is blocking much-needed Medicaid expansion. Grandparents raising grandchildren, as a guardian and not as an adoptive parent, are hit particularly hard. The government wants to use the grandparents' income in some cases when determining Medicaid qualification, and this holds up the process for children to get braces and the other medical assistance they need.

In 2004, Texas passed a "Medical Tort Reform" law, promising that by limiting damages from medical malpractice judgements to just $250K, consumers would benefit from lower insurance costs. They didn't. Instead, the most complex cases went unprosecuted because they cost more to pursue than the victims could possibly win, ensuring ONLY the most frivolous cases ever went to trial. End result: dangerous doctors & hospitals go unpunished with no incentive to correct their mistakes, continuing to treat patients who unwittingly entrust their lives to them. Insurance companies saved billions not having to pay out malpractice judgements, ensuring ONLY the MOST frivolous cases ever see the light of day. Texas fell to 50th in the nation as insurance rates continued to soar, and victims of these dangerous doctors were victimized again, denied justice as State Law shielded the people who harmed them. In 2013, my health-conscious mother who walked two miles a day, went to the gym, watched her weight and went dancing on the weekends, decided to ask her doctor about a lump in her cheek. Her doctor told her she had "Stage iV Lymphoma" and needed chemo. I said "No" but her doctor talked her into it anyway. Her doctor failed to tell her to take any precautions and she landed in the hospital with Walking Pneumonia that nearly killed her. The hospital then prescribed medication to "cough up the phlegm." As a result, three days of non-stop coughing later, she suffered a collapsed lung. Nine days after that, after having to tell her nurse that she hadn't had a bowel movement in FIVE DAYS, they got her out of bed (with collapsed lung and tubes in her side) to use a portable commode, went into cardiac arrest and was left a vegetable. The doctors repeatedly lied to us about what happened. When we finally learned what DID happen, no lawyer would take our "excellent" case, citing the Texas Tort Reform "cap" making the case too costly to pursue. When my mother passed away nine miserable months later, I ordered a full autopsy. The result: MY MOTHER NEVER HAD CANCER. Still, we were told we could not sue, citing the "cap" as the reason. This is a dangerous... if not deadly... law that needs to be repealed. It does NOTHING to reduce insurance costs, serving only to make insurance companies rich by denying malpractice victims justice.

Affordable healthcare should be available to all United States citizens and the people of Florida should not be left out.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott just announced that he no longer supports using federal funds under Obamacare to provide health insurance to 800,000 uninsured Floridians. But in 2013, Scott said, "Expanding access to Medicaid services for three years is a compassionate, common sense step forward." There's still time for the Florida Legislature to pass Medicaid expansion this year, providing a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of Floridians. Will you help hold Gov. Scott accountable for his flip flop and demand that he get the job done NOW?

We need to legalize medicinal cannabis! Too many Hoosiers are suffering from cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other illnesses. We need to stop spending $150 million in taxpayer money on sending innocent cannabis consumers to jail and make room for more serious offenses. Look at the facts, Indiana! Do research on the studies that come from outside the United States. Throw away all bias and look at the facts and statistics with a clean slate. 13,198 men and women, from our great Hoosier state, died from cancer in 2013. Cannabis can lower these numbers! (And we all know Indiana isn't a petition state but WE THE PEOPLE can change that too!) Also, we want the state to hear our voices and RECOGNIZE our petitions. We should have a say in our government, and voting for governor isn't what I'm talking about. We should be able to have a say when it comes to enacting a new law or changing a law. Our state wants to make laws solely based on what they (the people in office) believe is right, but what they believe isn't always right and people get hurt, lose families, and lose jobs. Currently they are trying to make possession of 1/4 of an ounce of dried cannabis flower a felony. This is outrageous and backward! Come on Indiana, sign your name, and if you want, call the governor's office or your representative and spread the enlightenment about cannabis!

Harmful Proposed Major Changes would: 1. prevent myself, and many other Aged & Disabled West Virginians, from being able to acquire (from our own budgets) necessary items (like wheelchair tires/parts, special mobility devices allowing safe winter travel, adaptive bathroom and emergency evacuation safety devices, etc) that are approved and needed but are NOT covered by traditional medicaid. 2. would force myself and many others to accept and pay for costly and intrusive 'Case Management' Services we neither want nor need. 3. would leave over 25% of participants with less mileage allotments then they require to meet their needs, taking away their 'life line' to the community, and disproportionately negatively affecting citizens in more rural areas. 4. Because the WV DHHR - Home Community Based Services Office misrepresented, under-reported, and then took no actions to resolve concerns reported to them during the official public comment period. Full Details are available here: http://tinyurl.com/StopHarmful2015WV-ADWchanges

Everyone in Florida deserves access to health care. Although this doesn't affect me it affects 800,000 people who need basic health care. We must end the blockade on funding and expand Medicaid now.