Medicaid’s Technical Denials Are Already Hurting Disabled People
Plus: a Florida mom fights denial after denial, an Ohio family battles for a stair lift, Arizona defunds a disability watchdog, and a new inclusive play space opens in Southern Oregon.
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From Jefferson Public Radio (Oregon): “New play space in Eureka offers social recreation tailored for kids with disabilities”
Play Street, which opened last week, is open to all children but focused on those with disabilities.
The nonprofit Play Street launched after President and Executive Director Shannon Townsend-Bettis and a group of other moms realized there wasn’t a space designed for children like theirs.
[…]The space features a calming environment for children with sensory needs, including dimmer lights and a vibroacoustic ball pit with soothing vibrations.[…]
• From NPR: “Deloitte-run systems denied Medicaid to disabled people. New laws could make it worse”
[…]“I honestly thought I was going to die,” [Michigander Marie] Noon said.
So it was a shock when Michigan denied her application for Medicaid benefits last year after she lost private insurance. Worse yet, it came down to an IT error, according to an attorney who helped Noon overturn the denial.
[…]Deloitte, a multibillion-dollar global consulting firm, has operated Michigan's Medicaid eligibility system under contracts worth roughly $768 million since 2006, according to contracts reviewed by KFF Health News. Nationwide, Deloitte dominates this important slice of government business: At least 25 states [including Oregon] have awarded the company contracts to build or run computer systems that control access to safety net benefits such as Medicaid.
[…]Many coverage restrictions in the new federal law [2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act] don't apply to seniors, children, or people who are disabled, such as Noon. Nonetheless, the law's demands on state agencies and the computer systems they oversee will disrupt benefits, advocates for Medicaid enrollees and other healthcare experts said in interviews.[…]
• From Tampa Bay 28: “‘I’m not giving up’: Florida mom battles Medicaid denials for special needs son”
[… Florida mom Kelli] Stuart tells [reporter Michael] Paluska when [her adopted son] Sawyer was approved for Medicaid, it was a blessing. But the red tape and hoops she’s had to jump through consume her.
“It took us about five years to get him on Medicaid. Medicaid really has been such a gift for him and our family. It’s just opened up doors to services, and I mean, you know, he, he’s not potty trained, so we get diapers and wipes, and so in a lot of ways Medicaid has been wonderful, but Medicaid, being the parent of a child on Medicaid, is a full-time job.”[…]
• From News 5 Cleveland: “‘I need to live’: Ohio mom fights state over disabled son’s stair lift”
A mother should never have to choose between her kids, especially in a scenario that potentially poses a safety risk, but Kasey Sheets says the county and state are forcing her to do so.
[…]”The summer of 24, like a tornado touched down right by us.[…”] As Sheets described it, she used every ounce of her “mom strength” and carried Finn down the stairs to the basement.
[…]The device she’s had her eye on would cost about $8,000. Sheets told me that money is already in an account in their name, but it’s about getting permission to utilize it for basement accessibility.[…]
• From Arizona Mirror: “After the Hacienda Healthcare rape, Arizona built a group home watchdog. Now it’s being defunded.”
An independent oversight program created in response to a horrific rape, meant to protect some of Arizona’s most vulnerable people, will cease at the end of this year unless it finds a new funding source, a casualty of Arizona’s newest bipartisan state budget.
[…]COMIT’s $1.2 million annual budget is a tiny fraction of the $18.3 billion state budget passed in June, which included cuts to many state departments and programs to pay for the $1.4 billion in Trump tax cuts that both Republicans and [Gov. Katie] Hobbs celebrated.[…]
• From Florida Bulldog: “Trump DOJ Memo threatens decades of disability rights protections, tests key Florida rights case”
[…]a June 18 memorandum opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), requested by a young lawyer in the White House Counsel’s office named Samuel Adkisson four months earlier, challenges the foundational principle of disability civil rights[….]
The memo strikes at the ADA’s central guarantee, repeatedly upheld by courts across the country, that people with disabilities, including medically fragile children in Florida, cannot be warehoused in institutions simply because states resist providing care at home or in the community. If embraced by higher ups at Justice, it also threatens two watershed court rulings that found Florida violated the ADA through the unjustified segregation and institutionalization of people with disabilities, a form of discrimination.
[…]Soon there may be no adversary in U.S. v. Florida. And if that happens, and the full appellate court and its conservative majority undo the findings of its own panel and Judge Middlebrooks, the consequences for thousands of disabled individuals and their families would likely be disastrous.[…]
• From Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “They deserve better education: Arkansas failing its disabled kids (Opinion)”
I taught special education in Arkansas for three years. I loved my students. They were the reason I came to work every morning. But I ultimately made the heartbreaking decision to leave because I could no longer watch a system fail the very children it was created to protect.
Let me be clear. I support inclusion. When done correctly, inclusion gives students with disabilities the opportunity to learn alongside their peers while still receiving the specialized instruction they need to succeed.
The problem is that putting students in a general education classroom has replaced giving them the specialized services they need.[…]
• From WAMC: “NY law would create voluntary disability registry in wake of child's death”
A new bill introduced in the New York State Assembly would create a voluntary, statewide database for children and adults with mental and developmental disabilities.[…]
• From The Fiji Times: “Barriers to inclusion – Study exposes gaps in support for children with disabilities”
DESPITE Fiji’s commitments under international human rights conventions, children with disabilities continue to face significant barriers in accessing education, healthcare and other essential support systems.
[…]One of the major concerns identified was the continued difficulty children with disabilities face in accessing inclusive education.
While there were positive examples of institutions making improvements, Ms Yuen said more work was needed to ensure schools were safe, accessible and inclusive.
“We want children with disabilities to go to school, but we need to look at how safe, how accessible and how inclusive the teaching environment is,” she said.
[…]The study included 24 priority recommendations covering the seven thematic areas. Among the recommendations was the need to strengthen disability rights awareness across government and communities.[…]
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