One of our greatest responsibilities as Americans is to help elect the legislators who represent us and Florida's more than 14 million other residents. Our role in the democratic process of government doesn not end at the polls. By sharing our opinions and ideas with our representatives and senators in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., we help them decide what to do about the issues and pending legislation that affects us all. They value our suggestions. We encourage you to contact your legislators, both on a federal and state level to make them aware of issues affecting adult day services and those that we serve.
Current Issues
Current Happenings:
For a complete report, see the Legislative update links for the current report from our lobbyist below!
New Advocay Brochure!
FADSA has developed a new advocacy brochure that you can use when talking to your legislators. Print out a copy and take it with you on your next visit to your legislator. Or, mail a copy to the legislator to let him/her know what issues are important to the Adult Day Services Industry.
Click Here for the FADSA Advocacy Initiative Brochure
The Florida Adult Day Services Association (FADSA)2009 Special Session Issue Paper
See FADSA's Advocacy at work! The Florida Adult Day Services Association (FADSA) opposes reductions in general revenue funding for the following programs:
Aged and Disabled Home and Community Based Medicaid Waiver Alzheimer’s Disease Medicaid Waiver Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative (ADI) Community Care for the Elderly (CCE) Local Services Program (LSP) Long Term Care Medicaid Diversion Programs
Please read the position paper and contact your legislator regarding the effect that reductions would have on the quality of life for your clients.
Position Paper
Legislative Updates Provided by our Lobbyist, Bob Asztalos
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE- Year At A Glance from Bob Asztalos
The 2009 session came to an end a week later than expected this year. Rather than finishing on May 1, 2009 legislators wrapped everything up on Friday May 8, 2009 due to the failure to timely pass their budget.
A few key items that impact long term care providers in the budget are: • Going into the budget conference, the Senate cut the LSP, HCE, Contracted Services, CCE and ADI waiver programs by 5%. The House provided level funding but ultimately agreed to the Senate 5% reductions for all programs except CCE. • The conference reduced an initial CCE cut from $1.6 million to $993,000. • The budget reflects $872,000 savings from elimination of the Florida Senior Care program. • Adult Vision Services will be funded however, the current allowance for an annual pair of glasses will be changed to frames every two years and lenses annually.
Overall health and human services funding grew by nearly $2.7 billion. The growth was due to money handed down by the federal government in the form of federal stimulus. This helped to increase the federal Medicaid matching rate from 55 percent to 68 percent and the $1 a pack cigarette tax increase will also be applied to the health care budget.
The state's Medicaid program is expected to grow from roughly $16 billion overall to just under $18 billion and because of the stimulus money, there should be enough to pay for the increasing Medicaid caseload. Florida is expected to be serving an estimated 2.5 million people in the Medicaid program in the coming year.
The Legislature did revive the Meds-AD program, a prescription drug program, and the Medically Needy program, which provides help to people who aren't Medicaid eligible but need health care help. The two programs were supposed to end July 1, but the Legislature funded them at the same level through 2010.
The Agency for Health Care Administration, which administers Medicaid, saw a 12.5 percent increase in its budget, something very rare in such a bad budget year.
Rumors persist that the Legislature may have to come back in the Fall to further reduce spending because of the lethargic economy. However, no official decision on additional budget cuts have been made by the leadership.
Understanding the Legislative Budget Process
Read about the legislative budget process and how you can influence the process. Understanding the process helps to promote advocacy efforts.
Legislative Budget Process
What Should We Do?
From time to time, the members of the Florida Adult Day Services Association are asked to support, oppose or stay neutral on legislative and policy issues. This section will feature current issues that we, as a membership, have been asked to voice our opinions:
To respond to an issue, e-mail your opinions to our president, Ginna O'Connor at:
goconnor@sramail.org