Second Regular Session

Sixty-first General Assembly

LLS NO. R98­0898.01 AEK

STATE OF COLORADO

BY SENATOR Rupert;

also REPRESENTATIVE Saliman.

HEWI

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 98-031

CONCERNING ENDORSING AND SUPPORTING PASSAGE OF THE MEDICAID COMMUNITY ATTENDANT SERVICES ACT OF 1997 (MICASA).

WHEREAS, According to the most recent United States decennial census there were fifty­four million disabled Americans, over two million two hundred thousand of whom reside in nursing homes or other institutions; and

WHEREAS, In Colorado there are three hundred twenty thousand persons with disabilities, over twenty­two thousand of whom reside in nursing homes or other institutions, primarily due to the lack of community home­based attendant services; and

WHEREAS, The average yearly cost of residing in a nursing home is higher then the average yearly cost of providing community home­based attendant services; and

WHEREAS, The Medicaid Community Attendant Services Act of 1997 (MiCASA) would expand the range of services available to persons with disabilities and give them a greater ability to choose services; and

WHEREAS, The Colorado General Assembly was one of the first state legislatures to enact a community home­based attendant services program act, and many states still do not have viable alternatives to nursing or institutional care for persons with disabilities; and

WHEREAS, Adoption of MiCASA would help to ensure that community home­based attendant services programs are truly responsive to the needs of persons with disabilities, especially those residing in rural areas where choice of services is currently more limited; and

WHEREAS, Under MiCASA, an individual who is currently eligible for nursing facility services or intermediate care facility services for the mentally retarded may apply the funding received through these programs to purchase qualified community home­based attendant services and thereby receive care in the most integrated and least restrictive setting possible; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty­first General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:

That the Colorado State General Assembly urges Congress to pass the Medicaid Community Attendant Services Act of 1997; and

Be it further resolved, That a copy of this joint resolution be sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, and to each member of the Colorado Congressional Delegation.