March 2024 Updates from Our Executive Director

March 8

Spring is coming, and along with the budding plants and warming temperatures this season usually brings hope. Certainly our community has a great deal to hope for, including on the national level (it was great to hear support for expanded availability of homecare for people with disabilities shouted out briefly in the State of the Union last night) and here in Massachusetts, where several key disability bills are in strong positions as we move into the home stretch of the legislative session. To learn more, check out our Legislative Agenda.

However, there's also a great deal to be worried about right now, specifically with the Healey administration proposing multiple changes to the PCA program that the community is extremely concerned about. Issue #1 is the eligibility changes we've been telling you about. Designed to cut over $100 million from the program, these would see thousands of current members no longer eligible if they are assessed to need less than 10 hours per week of support with Activities of Daily Living. Supposedly these individuals would all be shifted into other programs like homecare or adult foster care, but the homecare entities we've been speaking to are highly skeptical that they would be able to absorb an influx of new clients given their current workforce issues, and the adult foster care program is a small and highly specific program that many PCA users will not be eligible for.

Additionally, the state also pushed out a notice seeking proposals for a new single entity to conduct medical assessments to determine eligibility/need for not just PCA but also homecare, adult foster care, and several other Long Term Services and Supports programs. This proposal, which would take these assessments out of the hands of organizations like Independent Living Centers that currently conduct them, came out with no prior consultation of our community, and we've also been hearing grave concerns about the impact that it would have, particularly its potential to medicalize these crucial services and erode the culturally-informed independent living model.

For all these reasons, we'd urge you: keep speaking out. Keep calling the governor's office to voice your displeasure, keep contacting your legislators, and join us at the State House on March 20th at 1 PM for a rally against the proposed cuts to the PCA program. We know so many of you have already taken action, and it is having an impact, but we have to keep it up.

On a brighter note, we're proud to announce a new issue brief that we published with Community Catalyst!

We also have a whole host of events and job postings, so please check them out.

Be well, take care, and stay safe.

—Colin Killick
Executive Director
Disability Policy Consortium