MERCER COUNTY Group seeks support for services for disabled

The money should follow the individual, one official said.
MERCER, Pa. -- An Erie-based advocacy group is seeking local backing for federal legislation that would allow people with disabilities to get government-paid services in their homes rather than in institutions.
Voices For Independence had a press conference Tuesday on the steps of the Mercer County Courthouse asking people to contact their federal legislators to urge their support for the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Support Act (MiCASSA) bills pending in both the House and Senate.
Rep. Phil English of Erie, R-3rd, is a co-sponsor of the House version, said Alan Dunfee, spokesman for Voices For Independence.
There is an institutional bias in the United States that forces people with disabilities to be institutionalized for treatment, VFI representatives say.
Providing a choice
MiCASSA would give those people a choice, allowing them to get Medicare- and Medicaid-paid support in their own homes, or wherever they choose, Dunfee said.
Those long-term care dollars will follow those people into their communities rather than be centralized in institutions such as nursing homes, he added.
Those services could be anything from daily living assistance such as bathing and dressing to health-related functions.
Community services have been shown to be less expensive on average than institutional care, Dunfee said.
Pennsylvania already has in-home, community-based services to allow people who are disabled to get care in their own homes. The federal legislation would channel federal dollars into the same type of program, Dunfee said.
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill are in legislative committees, he added.