There’s a small bungalow on a wooded property near the town limit of Carbon, Indiana, where Edna Chadwell spends her days. The 61-year-old, who has cerebral palsy and depends on a wheelchair, lives in this space on her own, just like she did in Indianapolis in the late 80s when she had an apartment.
Federal courts have for decades said recipients of Medicaid and other safety-net programs across the country have the right to sue if they believe states are unlawfully withholding benefits.But now, disability rights advocates and legal experts fear the U.S. Supreme Court will unravel that right. And that change could start as early as next week.
Living in a long-term care facility would have kept Chadwell from being near her 83-year-old father, who lives next door to her home. It would have ended strolls in her wheelchair down Carbon’s country roads.And it would have crushed the hopes of her mother, who was happy when Chadwell decided to become her own legal guardian in the 1980s. Chadwell's mom, who passed away in 1999, wanted her daughter to live a normal life.
A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana ruled against the late Talevski's family, saying their lawsuit wasn't allowed by federal law. But the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision and allowed Talevski's suit to go forward. That ruling prompted Health & Hospital to ask the Supreme Court to step in and review the law.
The boy could not walk, but he could roll around and stretch his legs. Without the therapy services the state was denying, he would lose even those abilities. The boy’s mother and parents of two other children denied therapy services filed a class action lawsuit. A judge ruled in their favor, forcing the state to cover the necessary therapy costs.
The lawsuit came to an end after the state entered into a settlement agreement. Officials didn’t admit any wrongdoing, but they reversed their track and started using Medicaid to cover the drug for early-stage Hepatitis C patients. In 2009, a Florida father raising four children on his own sued the state’s Medicaid program after it refused to pay for diapers for his 16-year-old daughter who had cerebral palsy. Her condition made her completely incontinent. Her doctor had prescribed her diapers to prevent skin breakdown.