Parents Must Share Cost Of Care For Disabled Kids

Idaho parents who care for severely disabled children at home no longer can expect taxpayers to pay all the medical bills.

By summer, middle-income and wealthy parents will have to chip in toward their children’s care.

“It’s hard to be a hard-nosed, but it’s necessary at times,” Sen. Grant Ipsen, R-Boise, said Monday. “People have to take responsibility.”

About 500 severely disabled Idaho children get free care under a special Medicaid program set up nationwide during the Reagan administration as a humane, less-expensive alternative to institutionalization.

Most other Medicaid programs have strict income guidelines tied to federal poverty levels.

Children who qualify for the special program get free medical care no matter how much money their families make. One Idaho family earns $360,000 a year, according to an Idaho Department of Health and Welfare report.

Two years ago, state lawmakers ordered Health and Welfare to start making parents who could afford it chip in to help rein in Idaho’s Medicaid costs.

Over the next four years, the “parental share program” is expected to save taxpayers $1.1 million, 30 percent of it state money and the rest federal funds.

About 158 Idaho families will start racking up bills by July 1. The families have a median income of $46,000 a year and can expect to start paying about $50.63 a month toward their children’s care.

Boiseans Peggy and Scott Vander Waal are among those 158 families.

Their 11-year-old son, David, is severely disabled and prone to seizures.

Mentally, the boy’s abilities range from those of a 9-month-old up to those of a 4-year-old.

With an adjusted gross income of about $72,000 a year, the Vander Waals are willing to chip in to the Medicaid program, even though they have private health insurance that covers most of David’s medical bills these days.