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Voice of the Retarded Supports a Temporary Increase to the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP)

Voice of the Retarded (VOR) is pleased to offer support for Congressional proposals by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and others to extend the temporarily increase of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) provided to states last year. This additional federal assistance helped States minimize cuts to important Medicaid-supported residential and health care programs on behalf of people with disabilities, the elderly, and other Americans.

Even with this additional federal assistance, Medicaid services in many states have been cut. States continue to struggle to accommodate Medicaid shortfalls. Although the economy is strengthening, the progress is slow.

People with disabilities, including people with mental retardation, stand to suffer the most if access to residential, health care and other services is cut. For people with chronic health care conditions accessing uninterrupted services is often a matter of life or death.

It is vital that Americans with disabilities, including people with mental retardation, not be left behind in the ongoing plans to reform Medicaid. Proposals to extend the temporarily increase in the federal Medicaid match offers some level of security to our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. VOR does ask that any increase in Medicaid spending result in direct support to the people in need, rather than increased administrative costs.

VOR is pleased to join the broad base of national, state and local organizations in support of a temporary increase in federal Medicaid funding to provide essential fiscal relief to states. Such additional assistance is necessary to lesson the magnitude of state cuts to Medicaid.

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Voice of the Retarded is a national organization advocating on behalf of individuals with mental retardation and their families. VOR is the only national organization advocating for a full range of residential and support options for people with mental retardation, including Medicaid‑certified Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICFs/MR) and home and community‑based care.  

VOR * 836 S. Arlington Heights Rd., #351 * Elk Grove Village, Illinois * 60007

877-399-4VOR ph. * 847-258-5273 fax * tamie327@hotmail.com