Expand Medicaid (Letter to the Editor)

I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading “The Poor Are Different From You and I” (Gwen Moritz’s Editor’s Note, Sept. 17). As an adult day care owner with a capacity of 33 and an active census of only eight, I could go on for years regarding my frustrations with the Medicaid system, or lack thereof. I have been working diligently with state Rep. Fredrick J. Love, D-Little Rock, on how to appropriate this money fairly for the benefit of the disabled adult, and he has been most receptive.

I am a Katrina evacuee and have decided to stay in Arkansas because of its beauty, opportunity and peace. Starting a business here is done with the greatest of ease, and the city is ethically and efficiently run. However, the Medicaid system needs to be plenty more generous to the disabled population.

I have stacks of referral forms of people wanting to come to my agency, but they make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little money to afford me! I have conversed with people who literally make $3 over the Medicaid limit. Or people whose income qualifies them, but they own a house and therefore cannot get Medicaid. What about the 40-year-old adult with sarcoidosis? Because she is not 65, Medicaid will not fund her stay at an adult day care, yet it will pay her for to be institutionalized in a nursing home. It is these types of dilemmas I encounter every day in trying to grow my business.

(Shay Stevens is Program Director at Millennium Adult Day Center of Little Rock.)