Last week, Eddie and Martha Clemons were featured in a story in the Fort Myers, Fla., News Press, about the lack of Medicaid funding in Southwest Florida for residents who qualify. The couple are involved at Villas Grace Church, a Charis Fellowship congregation in Fort Myers (Matthew Niemier, pastor). A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article.
Disabled Southwest Floridians wait years for Medicaid’s support services to achieve their dreams
Mouth-watering smells wafted from the oven as Eddie Clemons basted a roasting chicken while his wife Martha knitted at the dining room table.
In their 60s, from hard beginnings, the Clemonses lucked into a lifetime of paid employment, a happy marriage, a car and a home — an American dream out of reach for most disabled people in Southwest Florida, or Florida for that matter, because of miserly state funding.
“Florida’s Medicaid waiver reimburses only 54 cents on the dollar for supportive services,” said Angela Katz of LARC, a Fort Myers nonprofit offering life enhancing programs for the disabled since 1954.
“When families call us, I encourage them to apply for the services, even though the waiting list can be 15 years long,” Katz said.
Over 700 people in the five-county area that includes Lee and Collier are waitlisted, she said. Without the waivers, families must pay for services out of pocket or do without.
Click here to read the complete article.