I'M ANGRY

Dear Reader, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, a Liberal or Conservative, there comes a time when you need to step back from the fray and ask yourself: Is every position my political interests support correct or fair? Sometimes we need to consider more than just ourselves, or the prevailing winds that blow.

As you know the Governor of the State of New York is taking aim at Medicaid abuse and he should. Too many people are stealing money from the system and abusing it when they shouldn’t. I personally have a working knowledge of Medicaid and what it looks for when it does lend assistance. My mom is at that fragile age where she will at some point need assistance once her money is used up for herself in terms of medical costs. My sisters and I all feel that we should spend down her money first for her medical needs and then when there is no more, the state will step in. This is what it should be and we should all try to be honest in that regard. Too many wealthy people are cheating the system and trying to hide the family money for themselves and taking the attitude of “Let the State pay for it.”

However, there is a group of people out there who have no real means of support except their Medicaid monies that flow generously from the State. Generous in terms that it does come from the State no matter how much it is.

Unfortunately to sell newspapers: sometimes the need to ‘investigate’ and find something to hook onto to will do the trick. Medicaid fraud is a popular topic and anyone guilty or not is targeted. My daughter’s agency of which I sit on the board of directors, gets a Medicaid budget and we as board members along with the administration staff work very hard to make those dollars go far. We are a not for profit agency and so we spend every dime carefully and with purpose.

Our dedicated and loving staff has not received an increase in a while and odes not even get parity with the State workers doing the same thing in the same field!

But due to shoddy reporting and errant facts, newspapers like the NY Times sees fit to misrepresent the facts and wrap up everyone in the same package of abuse. They, the State of New York seeks to slash 6% of the Medicaid budget that goes to all not for profit agencies like AHRC Suffolk Chapter! I wrote this letter to make the Governor, Andrew Cuomo aware of how many of us feel and want to bring it to your attention too.

________________________________________________________________

Governor Cuomo

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo


Governor of New York State


NYS State Capitol Building


Albany, NY 12224

Dear Honorable Governor Cuomo:

The Justice Center for Protection of People with Special Needs, needs to investigate the intentions and tone of the State of New York and your good office.

“For too long our state has been inconsistent in how it addressed incidents of abuse against people with special needs, lacking any real consistent standards for tracking and investigating complaints or punishing those who commit abuse and neglect.”

The above quote is from your temporary website under the name of:  JUSTICE CENTER.

Sir, if it is imperative for you to state that: “it is imperative that state government meet its obligation to protect and serve all New Yorkers” then you need to understand the impact that you will personally have on those you seek to protect.  

To carve out 6% of the budget for Medicaid for those most fragile and most vulnerable to such draconian cuts is mean spirited, ill conceived and most cruel and abusive to an agency like NYSARC’s AHRC Suffolk Chapter.

Ellen

As a father of an adult child with developmental disabilities all her life, a child who is now a target for your slashing, and I as a board member of the same Suffolk Chapter, find it disheartening that you would do such a thing! If you came to our agency, or any of our sister agencies in the NYSARC brand, you would understand better what that 6% means. If you took the time to see how we spend the Medicaid monies the State of New York has so generously provided for our services and programs, how little is spent on salaries and administration the budget we work under allows, you sir, would be impressed. This I assure you, you would have to then reconsider your position of slashing 6% of that meager budget. We can’t even reward our people with cost of living raises, nor can we afford parity with the NYS agencies that treat the same population! Time and again our Executive directors have refused pay raises because their staff hasn’t gotten one. Time and again, in lieu of raises we needed as a collective board find ways to reward staff that is dedicated, loving and unwilling to jump ship because they believe in our mission!

I fully understand your position about Medicaid abuse, and appreciate your need to do what you need to do. But surely Sir, the abuse you speak of and seek to rightfully end, is NOT taking place in our agencies, is NOT practiced by our staff and board who are mostly parents and taxpayers who vote.

I suspect that you have taken a road of principles without thinking of those you hurt. The publicity of the news media was not honest in its reporting, nor accurate or honest in its conclusions, and certainly NEVER came to Suffolk to look for a way to sell their newspapers.

I see my daughter and I work hard to provide her with all she needs as a father. I can never provide her with an education, or a wedding to dance with her like other fathers can, I can only take my life and dedicate like thousands of other fathers who are in the same boat, saddened by life’s breaks, blaming no one and only asking for the help needed to make my daughter Ellen have a somewhat happy existence, free of fear and pain but having some meaning.

My wife and I go to sleep at night and are able to rest because of Suffolk Chapter’s efforts. As a board member, I seek to make sure as a responsible board member that we do all we can to insure no amount of money is ever wasted and that we hire only the best possible talent we can find. To see that we would be ‘rewarded’ by the State of New York and the honorable Governor with this slap in the face, this cruel response to my daughter for all our efforts as parents and board members, just makes me want to find a darker place than I am in now and cry.

Please reconsider your views here, understand what it is you are doing by this measure, and help me rather than hurt me or my wife and daughter.

Thank you if you even read this plea.

Respectfully yours,

Joe Del Broccolo