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With Medicaid, My Son Can Live A Full Life
Anne Patton, Denver
efforts because all the
funds are directed
When it comes to the care of her adult son, Chris, Anne toward insurance and
Patton has taken “the road less traveled.” After dealing providing the staff
for over a decade with the care provided by outside with the best wage
agencies, Anne decided to open her own Program she can afford.
Approved Service Agency (PASA) to better serve her
son.
Chris is well adjusted
“We had been recruiting staff for the agency to hire. But
no one really seemed to understand his needs. I decided
to open my own PASA so that I could select and train the
staff that work with him every day. It has made all the
difference in his health and happiness.”
in his own home and
exercises his autonomy there. He has an active hand
in placing ads for staff. He also runs his own business
selling t-shirts with his poetry on them, mostly at
disability conferences.
Anne is also concerned about healthcare availability for
the people who take on the job of caring for people like
her son. The job requires great skill but does not pay
well.
“Chris’s team does an amazing job supporting him.
However, their only access to healthcare is through the
Affordable Care Act (ACA). It is imperative to keep
healthcare affordable and available to people like this as
I cannot afford to pay healthcare as an employer.”
Anne worries about the reductions of federal funding
for Medicaid under a system of block grants or per
The PASA allows Anne to run her own agency to provide capita limits. She would be forced to place Chris in a
the care her son requires under Colorado’s Medicaid group home where his needs are much less likely to be
Developmental Disabilities waiver. She sets wages, hires met. Worse, his condition might force an institutional
and trains staff and develops and manages the schedule placement, a far costlier solution that would rob him of
for the 24-hour care that Chris receives in his own his freedom.
home. Anne had to quit her job to take on the task of
establishing the PASA. Just maintaining the effort to “I have been on a long journey seeking the support that
keep three shifts of people going, arranging vacations Chris needs. Without the Medicaid waiver program,
and covering sick days means that Anne continues to I would never have been able to set up a situation that
spend most of her time running the PASA and providing allows Chris to live in his own home with the opportunity
much of Chris’s support. She takes no salary for her to live a full life.”