Ranking State Medicaid Programs
While progress has been made and there is more quality assurance of services provided, some states are failing to adequately serve Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD), according to The Case for Inclusion 2012, a new Medicaid report released today.
United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) are calling on advocates to use The Case for Inclusion as a tool to determine how to build state support and service systems that work for people. The findings for 2012 reveal that:
While progress has been made, there is room for improvement: 36 states can now show that 80% of the individuals with ID/DD in their states are served in the community;
States are becoming more involved in ensuring the quality of the services they provide: 29 states have established a comprehensive quality assurance program to measure the outcomes of the community services they deliver;
But there is still more to do, particularly in providing services: waiting lists for critical community services continue to climb with more than a quarter of a million, or 268,000, people with ID/DD.
The 2012 report tracks the progress of community living standards, and it shows that the states with the best services and supports for Americans living with disabilities are Arizona, Michigan and California. The lowest performing states are Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi, which have remained at the bottom of the rankings since The Case for Inclusion was first published in 2006.
