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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