LD 1250 hearing Mon afternoon - right to sue for access to services (incl waitlist/workforce)

[Maine Disability Alerts]

Dear Friends of Mainers with Disabilities,

Public hearing is scheduled for Monday afternoon on LD 1250 An Act Regarding Paying Providers Sufficiently, Maintaining Short Waiting Lists and Creating a Cause of Action for Aggrieved Persons in the System of Care for Clients with Intellectual Disabilities or Autism

This bill would create a right for Mainers with disabilities to sue in court in order to get access to services denied through waitlists that are too long and wages that are too low.

The basis of the law is that federal Medicaid regulations require the state to maintain a pool of service providers. But there's not currently any way to enforce that legal requirement. Because the US Supreme Court ruled in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center that Congress didn't provide a right to sue.

North Carolina has a *state* law that does allow such lawsuits by people with disabilities. That state law was the basis of the "Samantha R" case in NC, where people with disabilities sued to get the state to address waitlists and workforce issues (same huge issues as Maine has).

LD 1250 would create a similar law in Maine, so that Mainers with disabilities could sue to enforce the law and get access to services that are currently denied--or that might be denied in the future--especially due to wait list or workforce challenges.

To testify:

1. go to https://www.mainelegislature.org/testimony
2. Click on the "Public Hearing" radio button
3. On the "Choose a Committee" pull-down, choose "Health and Human Services"
4. On the "Choose date" pull-down, choose Apr 10 2023 1:00PM
5. Under "Choose a bill", select LD 1250 - An Act Regarding Paying Providers Sufficiently, Maintaining Short Waiting Lists and Creating a Cause of Action for Aggrieved Persons in the System of Care for Clients with Intellectual Disabilities or Autism
6. Check "I would like to testify electronically over zoom" to get a link to testify
7. Upload written testimony or type it in the box
8. Fill out first name, last name, phone #, town, email address, and check "I'm not a robot"
9. Press Submit/Register

thank you!