9 Range Street
Portland, Me 04103
June 21, 2002

Dear Senator Snowe,

   I have just become the victim of a 28-hour
per week cut in personal care attendant
(PCA)  long-term home care services.
 I am now allowed a maximum of
63.5 hrs. per week, instead of 91 hrs. per week,
of  PCA-provided  long-term home care.

   My funding source is a Medicaid Waiver for
the Physically Disabled. Federal funds are part
of the funding for this program.  I have been
assisted since 1994.  The cut shrinks my
care back o the 1996 level of care.

   I am in a group of   51 disabled adults in Maine
who have all been similarly cut..This  lost  PCA
care, cut back to my 1995 level of care,
is now my burden.!!

   Am I  expected to pay for this care??
It would cost me , at the  current pay
rate of $7.71 per hour, $900.00 per month.

I don't ever have that kind of money.

    My resources are very limited.  I currently receive
US Social Security Disability Insurance at $748.00
per month.  I have $140.00 in the bank, no oil in
my oil tank.

  This cut is therefore unimaginably quick and
deep.  I had two days '  notice of the cut.
It came  by  a certified,  return receipt requested
photocopied notice, rubber -stamped ,and sent to
a "Ms. Suzman", from the Maine Commissioner for
Human Services' office in Augusta.

  I appeal for your help from the federal government
to restore the cut Medicaid  Waiver Funds by Emergency
legislation.  I cannot pay for this much-appreciated
PCA care.  The devastating effects of Young Onset
Parkinson's Disease will be much harder for me to
curtail, as I am a 19th-year patient, with a difficult
set of symptoms to manage.

   I want to thank you for your help, and  for that of  LInda
Lyon here in your main office in Portland.  I hope you can act quickly
to repair the damage that this huge cut will cause.

Sincerely yours,

Ivan Suzman

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