JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – An April report from the insurance marketplace website Policy Genius placed Missouri 25th among states when considering those that best accommodate people with disabilities.
The site considered multiple factors including affordability, healthcare access and economic conditions.
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt spoke to a statewide group of disability rights advocacy organizations and providers in a roundtable discussion.
The Show-Me state was the subject of a recent report from the Department of Justice that revealed the state has been routinely subjecting patients with serious mental health disabilities to years-long stays in nursing home facilities through the misuse of the guardianship process.
“I haven’t seen that report, but generally speaking, we can do a lot better as it relates to intellectual disabilities,” Schmitt said when asked about the DOJ report.
Schmitt emphasized the need to create more employment opportunities for the disabled community.
“Allowing individuals with disabilities to save in a way that they’re not punished by way of benefits that they might otherwise receive is an important reform that I’ve advocated for in the past and will continue to do,” Schmitt said.
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Missouri’s junior senator also acknowledged a lingering stigma surrounding mental health disabilities, which are often carved out of conversations about public accommodations and services.
Lydia X.Z. Brown serves as the policy director for the National Disability Institute. They said almost every single public policy issue affects the disabled community in a disporportunate manner, and that the community itself is an extremely diverse group with diverse needs.
“People oftentimes will come to the conversation with misconceptions and preconceived notions about what a disability is and who counts as having a disability,” Brown said.
For example, people with disabilities are more likely to be living below the poverty line, more likely to experience housing insecurity or homelessness, more likely to experience domestic abuse, more likely to experience employment discrimination, and less likely to establish retirement security.
“People with disabilities are affected by every single issue that is of concern to any community that cares about the future of humanity, and that cares about the good of society,” Brown said.
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