Pennsylvania Mental Health/Mental Retardation Coalition Urges Governor to Protect Funding for Community Services in Wake of Reduced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Mental Health/Mental Retardation (MH/MR) Coalition sent a letter today to Governor Edward G. Rendell urging him to protect funding to services for people with mental illness, intellectual disabilities and substance abuse disorders during the budget balancing process. The group issued the call in response to budget adjustments being contemplated by the state as a result of a lower than anticipated Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP).

"As a result of the cuts to FMAP funding, it appears that after years of chronic underfunding, mental health services may once again carry the burden of balancing the budget," says Sue Walther, Executive Director, Mental Health Association in Pennsylvania (MHAPA), a member of the Coalition. "We are very concerned that decreased funds from the federal government will result in another round of cuts to programs for people in Pennsylvania who live with mental illness, intellectual disabilities and substance abuse disorders. This should not happen when there are other line items in the state budget that increased during the initial budgeting phase."

The MH/MR Coalition asks Governor Rendell to lead an equitable effort to close the budget gap left by decreased FMAP funds and to give due consideration to maintaining funding for critical programs that have already sustained cuts.

"Further cuts to mental health services will not create net savings but only increase costs from emergency room utilization, inpatient admissions, and needs for correctional facilities," says George Kimes, Executive Director, PA Community Providers Association, a Coalition member. "Furthermore, decreased funding means cutting jobs for people who are employed by the community service providers. It would create a number of newly unemployed Pennsylvanians."

The group also holds that funding should be maintained for the following reasons:

• State funding for mental health services was already cut by more than $35 million in the 2010-11 budget, on top of cuts in the two previous budgets. While the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) has utilized federal Medicare funds and taken other measures to keep programs whole, this may not be possible in the future.
• Demand for community services is growing as a result of economic instability, unemployment, loss of insurance coverage, and the needs of veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families.
• Community behavioral health services are vital to the health and well-being of the community and must be sustained. The commonwealth must prevent further damage to the safety net, repair the damage that has resulted from chronic underfunding for many years, and restore previous cuts as soon as the economy improves.
• Thousands of people with intellectual disabilities and their families depend on community-based services to ensure their continued health and safety as well as the quality of their daily lives.  The Community MR Base appropriation was subjected to an across-the-board cut in the FY2011 budget adopted in July.

"So many Pennsylvanians rely on community services and supports to maintain productive lives," says Lynn Keltz, Executive Director, PA Mental Health Consumers Association, also a member of the Coalition. "Balancing the budget on the backs of these individuals and their families through further across-the-board cuts violates Governor Rendell's budgetary policy of protecting the Commonwealth's most vulnerable citizens."

About the MH/MR Coalition

The MH/MR Coalition includes all major associations representing mental health and mental retardation programs and services in Pennsylvania, including Mental Health Association in PA; PA Association of Rehabilitation Facilities; PA Waiting List Campaign; Disability Rights Network; United Cerebral Palsy of PA; PA Community Providers Association; PA Association of Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities; The Arc of PA; PA Mental Health Consumers' Association; and PA Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition.

SOURCE MH/MR Coalition