ANNOUNCER: Welcome Council Member Rob Wudlick from Excelsior, Minnesota.
ROB WUDLICK: Honored guests, advocates, and legislators, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Rob Wudlick. I’m a white guy wearing glasses and a red and blue checkered shirt. I’m sitting in a powered wheelchair.
I am an entrepreneur, an engineer, a community leader, and a quadriplegic from a spinal cord injury. I’m also deeply committed to advocating for disability policies because they are the daily realities that we and the disability community face every day.
These policies make the difference between living a successful life, a sustainable life, and staying alive or not for our community. Often we find that common sense solutions are within reach, yet the system designed to help us remains imperfect and continuously changes.
Today, I want to highlight some of the most pressing issues affecting myself and our community. First, Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities, also known as MAEPD. Second, coverage of noncovered health-related services. And third, preserving and enhancing home care and access to critical healthcare needs.
First, the topic of MAEPD. MAEPD allowed me to rejoin the workforce as a biomedical engineer and create a company that develops assistive technology after my spinal cord injury. We need equal incentives and opportunities to work with a disability while retaining critical benefits.
Last session, we eliminated the asset limit. However, there is much more work to be done in terms of readjusting the premium rate or eliminating it, especially for those on the lower end of the income bracket. We also need reform that allows individuals 65 or older who work to stay in this program.
We also need to increase awareness and support for individuals who want to join the program and reduce the individual administrative burdens that we face. Many don’t know that this transition is difficult, as individuals living with disabilities commonly have to turn down other support benefits and navigate a complex web when they begin working again.
I have friends in the disability community that have had no safety net, who have been forced to make tough decisions on whether to buy food or pay their MAEPD premium bill when they decided to take the leap into starting their careers.
Additionally, my friend Bob is getting older. And he has a spinal cord injury. He continues to work in his career and has no plans to retire soon. However, he may be forced to retire at 65 for him to be able to maintain his benefits.
MAEPD supports individuals with disabilities to not have to choose between working or turning away life opportunities that most people take for granted, contributing to society, or receiving critical healthcare benefits, or building their dreams and sustainable wealth, or receiving home care that helps them get out of bed in the morning.
Next, let’s discuss coverage for noncovered health services, such as adaptive fitness. Adaptive fitness has helped myself and many of my friends. For instance, I require specialized training that has significantly improved my life, helping me move my arms, manage my blood pressure, improve my mood, prevent kidney stones, hospitalizations, and so much more.
New therapies and treatments, like transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation, offer promising functional benefits for individuals living with spinal cord injuries. Additionally, proper inpatient rehabilitation and education are critical. However, many individuals are discharged early without adequate preparation or resources.
To address these needs, we need mandated coverage for adaptive fitness for individuals living with disabilities; better support for individuals in inpatient rehabilitation settings; education and services for them to help transfer back to community living, especially for those who are experiencing a transition in their health that impacts their way of life.
I recently heard of a young woman who was tragically injured in a car accident and suffered a permanent spinal cord injury, making her dependent on a wheelchair and much more. She only had three weeks of inpatient care before the insurance company and Medicaid cut her off and sent her home.
Think about this. This doesn’t allow the individuals to build a ramp to access their homes, mentally cope and readjust for the new life ahead of them, learn many complex health-related skills, or how to even take care of themselves.
It doesn’t allow for individuals to get proper equipment, become medically stable. This puts so many individuals in dangerous situations away from critical healthcare access and commonly leads to more severe healthcare consequences and rehospitalizations, compounding medical expenses and complications down the road.
Finally, and most importantly, we need to preserve essential healthcare services for individuals living with disabilities. This is critical for my well-being and many, many others. This is a choice that we must make together.
Ask yourself, what are American values? What are Minnesotan values? And what are your values? We have a societal choice that we must face. We can either cherish and preserve a community that supports and takes care of one another, especially those in the greatest of need, or succumb to self-centered instincts, where we only look out for ourselves and take advantage and neglect our most vulnerable people.
We understand the need for fiscal responsibility, but at what point do we decide to abandon humanity and our values? It is important to recognize that most people will experience a disability in some form, whether temporary or permanent, at some point in their lives.
Bipartisan support across the aisle for our most essential Medicaid and disability services and benefits is critical now more than ever as we face potential budget cuts. We need to preserve essential services, such as access for home care and critical health access for individuals living with disabilities.
Without access to proper home care, I would lose the ability to participate in my community and contribute and live a dignified life. Home care is not only the morally right thing to do, but it is also cost effective compared to institutionalized care.
Here are some proposed solutions. Maintain essential services that provide community-based home care and access to healthcare for individuals living with disabilities. Enhance wages and benefits for home care workers.
Continue support for the direct care student service corps that incentivizes students to engage in home care with a stipend. Provide easily accessible accreditation certificates and training for lower-educated home care providers to perform complex tasks and ensure that home care is community care and not just limited to the home.
In conclusion, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Minnesota Council on Disability, advocates, and legislators. I look forward to working with all of you. It takes all of us to help each other. We need our elected leaders to understand our stories and struggles and to be seen.
I encourage each and every one of you to reach out and meet directly with your elected officials, especially if you have a disability and an issue. Your voice is needed now. Without community representation and communication, your issues will go unheard. Thank you.