By Vanessa Rastovi?, JD
In late November, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the State of Maine agreed to settle a suit the DOJ brought against the State for violations of the ADA. The recent DOJ case against the State of Maine revealed systemic failures to provide adequate community-based healthcare services for children with mental health disabilities, violating Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as interpreted in Olmstead v. L.C. However, these state-level challenges are a microcosm of a national-level problem.
The U.S. v. State of Maine case highlights a pervasive, yet overlooked crisis: the systemic failure to provide adequate community-based healthcare services to those with disabilities. In Maine, this often led to unnecessary and lengthy institutionalization of children who could have and wanted to be treated in their communities, despite Maine and its Medicaid program, MaineCare, having the resources to accommodate these community-based services reasonably.
This failure, as outlined in the legal challenge, extends from neglecting investments in community-based care, the impacts of which left parents with no meaningful options and forced children with disabilities into institutional settings. The inequities exposed in this case underscore the urgent need to designate people with disabilities as a Medically Underserved Population (MUP). An MUP designation is imperative if states are to invest in and implement community-based health services adequately. Such a designation is essential to ensure equitable access to healthcare, prevent unnecessary institutionalization, and address the risks of de facto segregation.
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