Family Voices Indiana

By:  Stan Dorn ,   Eliot Fishman Senators Graham (R-SC) and Cassidy (R-LA) have proposed a gigantic new block grant that would dramatically cut funding both for Medicaid expansion and for financial assistance that helps low-wage workers and moderate-income families buy private insurance. 1 Cosponsored by Senator Heller (R-NV), the Graham-Cassidy plan brings back troubling features of health care repeal bills that the Senate rejected on a bipartisan basis: major cuts to the underlying Medicaid program and the revocation of key protections for people with preexisting conditions. Congress should reject this or any other partisan proposal that takes health insurance away from tens of millions of Americans. Instead, lawmakers should focus on bipartisan approaches to stabilizing health insurance marketplaces. 2 What’s in the Graham-Cassidy proposal? Their plan has three main elements.  A new block grant that would slash federal funding currently slated for Medicaid expansio

Legislative Study Committees During the legislative session many interim study committee topics are recommended by the General Assembly.  The meetings allow experts in the field and state agencies to share information about the current state of issues in Indiana in preparation for the next legislative session.  In late May, the Legislative Council announced the  topics to be studied in the interim  before the 2018 session.   View the  House  and  Senate  interim study committee assignments. Check the  interim committee calendar  for updates. A sample of current meetings on the calendar include: Courts and the Judiciary  -  September 21  on financial crimes against the elderly,  October 5  on requests for new courts or judicial officers Education  -  September 28  on new teacher inductions,  October 18 Employment and Labor  -  September 12  on the Dept. of Workforce Development and the unemployment compensation system Fiscal Policy  -  September 18  on state sales tax on ve

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) in partnership with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released  The Roadmap to Behavioral Health . This guide offers important information about mental health and substance use disorder services, finding a behavioral health provider, defining behavioral health terms, receiving services, and following up on care. The resource walks through the 8 Steps of the Roadmap to offer information specific to behavioral health, and offers a glossary and links to other HHS resources.  Click here to download a copy today! ( https://www.cms.gov/About- CMS/Agency-Information/OMH/ Downloads/Coverage-to-Care- Behavioral-Roadmap.pdf )

by Rylin Rodgers August and September mean back to school in my house and in many others throughout the country. In preparation, we went through the annual rituals of gathering supplies, assessing clothing needs and the adjustment of bedtime for everyone in the house as we tried to get our bodies, as well as our minds, back into “school mode.” For families raising children with complex health care needs and disabilities there are a few extra back-to-school tasks, like updating health and emergency plans, dropping off medical supplies, facilitating training of key staff. For our family, there were also the traditional homemade chocolate chip cookies to greet the scholars upon their return from the first day. There is another group heading back to work after a summer break, also readjusting and planning for what is next:  Congress heads back to Washington next week, and while members may not have fresh supplies or homemade cookies they too face a fresh list of assignments, challenge