Episode 16 of “HASH IT OUT WITH JANE” on KUSF-IN-EXILE

IMPORTANT UPDATE!  OUR CAMPAIGNING WORKED!  I'll be mobile again in a month to 6 weeks!

Disclaimer: I misspoke in this episode.  I said unemployment was at a record low but meant to say record high.  I apologize. 


This episode focused on the current email campaign aimed at Medicare and the Health Transformation Office to use your tax dollars sensibly by providing me with an appropriate American made power wheelchair instead of using your tax dollars to buy me a foreign wheelchair that I can't use in my house.  Medicare is not Ohio's money...it is EVERYONE'S money who pays taxes in the United States.


The reason one of our focus points is on the Health Transformation Office in Ohio is because their goal is to "streamline" Medicaid and Medicare.  This office is comprised of individuals from the state and federal levels of our government.


Direct your mail and emails to the following people:

Senator Rob Portman                                              Senator Sherrod Brown

37 West Broad Street                                              1301 East Ninth Street

Suite 300                                                                            Suite 1710

Columbus, OH 43215                                              Cleveland, OH 44114-1817

(800) 205-6446                                                             (888) 896-6446

Greg Moody, DirectorGovernor’s Office of Health Transformation
Greg.moody@governor.ohio.gov

Eric Poklar, Director of Communications and Government Affairs
Eric.poklar@governor.ohio.gov

Monica Juenger, Director of Stakeholder Relations
Monica.juenger@governor.ohio.gov


THE LETTER - COPY & PASTE


(edit words in BOLD)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Dear (insert name),

I am a tax-paying citizen of the United States.    I am also a tax-paying resident of Ohio.  This means that my money helps to fund Medicaid and Medicare, which both provide necessary healthcare for Americans who are low-income, disabled, and/or elderly.  Therefore, when I am aware of my money being spent irresponsibly and without forethought, it is my responsibility to speak up.

The specific situation I am writing to you about is regarding Jane Hash.   She is an exceptionally small statured adult woman with Osteogenesis Imperfecta who uses a power wheelchair for independent mobility.  She is a recipient of Medicaid and Medicare.  The Ohio Home Care Program, which is funded by Medicaid, spent thousands of dollars modifying her home last year so that she can carry out her Activities of Daily Living as independently as possible in her home.  This is an appropriate use of my tax dollars and prevents me from having to pay even more money for her to have institutionalized care, which in Ohio is currently running at a minimum cost of around $130 +/- per day of skilled nursing care.

A year ago Ms. Hash began the process of getting a new power wheelchair because her current wheelchair is old, in disrepair, and needs to be replaced.  Medicare has now rejected her request for an appropriate power wheelchair twice.  She is requesting a wheelchair that has comparable dimensions and features as her current wheelchair because that is what will work within her home (as modified by The Ohio Home Care Program precisely to fit her previously approved chair) to maintain maximum independence and it is what she is most comfortable in.

Medicare’s reason for rejecting her request for a new power wheelchair is because of the type of power wheelchair she is requesting.  Medicare recommends that she have a power wheelchair that is designed to facilitate a child who plays in wide-open spaces like a playground.  This power wheelchair would take away Ms. Hash’s independence because it is not an appropriate wheelchair for her environment that The Ohio Home Care Program helped her to create.  Purchasing a power wheelchair for her that she can’t use is not an appropriate use of my tax dollars and neither is unnecessarily remodeling her house every time she gets a new wheelchair.  This is not cost effective.

Furthermore, I have come to learn that, the inappropriate wheelchair that Medicare claims that Ms. Hash needs is manufactured by a company in Sweden and the wheelchair that she truly needs is manufactured in the United States.  I find this information unacceptable.  As a tax paying American I want my tax dollars to be spent in the United States.

On March 3, 2012 Ms. Hash’s power wheelchair stopped working.  She is now without independent mobility.  Please do what ever needs to be done in a speedy fashion to get Ms. Hash into an appropriate power wheelchair as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

(insert your name)

Music Playlist

• Star Spangled Banner
• Everythings Just Wonderful - Lily Allen
• Norman Greenbaum – SPIRIT IN THE SKY 
• Hope - Shaggy
• Afro Celt Sound System - Go On Through 

LISTEN HERE