Gov. Ned Lamont’s plan to sunset one of the state’s long-term care programs, Community First Choice, is continuing to face backlash from people with disabilities and their allies.
The Medicaid State Plan service allows people who may otherwise need a nursing home level of care to schedule supports and other services in their own homes.
It’s an entitlement program, so right now, anyone who qualifies can have that access.
But that could change if lawmakers approve the Lamont administration’s proposed budget cut.
“It's scary, because I had planned to go on Community First Choice at some point,” said Maureen Amirault, who has a progressive disease and uses a wheelchair.
Amirault said she expected to use the program and wants to get care at home as planned, and not end up in a nursing home.
“And so that's taken away from me, too,” she said.
The Lamont administration said Thursday the over 7,250 people currently on Community First Choice would continue getting services through other state programs. Disability rights community members and advocates say they are concerned about what will happen if Community First Choice gets cut.
“They say that the people currently on the program will get placed on a waiver, and that no one's going to lose their coverage. But there's no plan in place for doing that, and there's long wait lists” Amirault said. “There’s just no real plan.”
State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, (D-West Hartford) co-chair of the Human Services Committee, said the Lamont administration’s proposal is not well thought-out.
“We cannot move forward with this when you are not planning for all the people who are going to need services in the next few months and years,” Gilchrest said.
In public testimony, Mary-Ann Langton, who founded the Connecticut chapter of ADAPT, was among the many who detailed how important Community First Choice is for the independence of people with disabilities.
“This program has enabled me to live in the community with 75 hours of personal assistance per week, and, as a result, to be a very productive disability advocate fighting for civil liberties throughout the state,” Langton wrote.
The reason for the change, state officials said, is that the costs of operating the Community First Choice Program are growing, and expected to keep going up.
According to the state DSS budget presentation, the state plan service cost increased from $88.8 million in fiscal year 2018, to $371 million in fiscal year 2025.
The Office of Budget and Policy Management in an email said they believe sunsetting the program and creating an alternative may make the care program better for the workforce, families and those getting services.
“This approach recognizes that not everyone wants, or is able, to take on the administrative responsibilities of being an employer,” the agency said.
“None of these arguments justify ending the entitlement that makes CFC so effective,” Langton and Molly Cole of CT State Independent Living Council said in a letter Wednesday outlining their concerns to the governor, that dozens of disability rights groups and advocates co-signed.
The proposal would need a sign-off from the Appropriations Committee and legislative leaders.
OPM in its proposal is also asking for help from people with disabilities and stakeholders to redesign services without CFC.
Langton and Cole wrote that groups are open to working with the administration to discuss changes to the Community First Program, “provided you first withdraw the dangerous, discriminatory and potentially costly proposal to end CFC, a program that is and will be critical to thousands of our members.”
“We are committed to a full planning process before any transition takes place,” a spokesperson for the Office of Budget and Policy Management said in an email.
OPM noted that no changes would go into effect before April 2027.
