Man faces return to nursing home

To the editor:

I am a 53-year-old quadriplegic, one of many severely disabled Missourians deemed Medicaid ineligible if the House passes Senate Bill 539. With the help of in-home personal care provided by Medicaid, I was able to leave the dehumanizing confinement of a Missouri nursing home. For the past five years I have lived in my own apartment with a dignity and quality of life unmatched by any institution.

If Gov. Matt Blunt's yes-men have their way this week, it will be a short ride back to the nursing home for me. Does Blunt really believe that we, the profoundly disabled poor, can maintain ourselves in our barely affordable apartments without the help of Medicaid? Since when does a person living at poverty level have the means to pay someone to bathe, dress, feed or lift him from a bed to a wheelchair?

SB 539 means that people like me will be transported back to the nursing homes in droves. Of course, politicians like Blunt already know that passage of the so-called Medicaid Reform Bill will make it impossible for thousands of severely disabled Missourians to survive without institutionalization, never mind that maintaining a disabled person in his own home is cheaper.

But not to worry, dear Missouri taxpayer. The passage of SB 539 will be great for business, and the nursing home industry thanks you from the bottom of its heart.

KEITH SUMMERS, Springfield, Mo.