(date)

(Medicaid director name, title
Medicaid director department name
address
address city, state, zip)

Dear Mr.(Ms) (name),

I write to you today with an offer of assistance from the disability rights community. We wish to help you to bring our state into compliance with the Supreme Court's June, 1999, decision in Olmstead v. L.C. & E.W. The Court ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act does, under the law, require that people with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting.

Enclosed here are pages from the AARP Public Policy Research document, "Across the States," showing how our state measured up in 1998 with services to people of all ages who have developmental and physical disabilities. Also enclosed are pages concerning our state from the 1999 National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors document, "SHMA Profiling Sytem" which show where our state stood in 1995 (the most recent year available) in long-term services to people with psychiatric disabilities. Donna Shalala, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has urged state Medicaid directors and state legislatures to work with the disability rights community in developing state plans to ensure that people with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting. Here I am (we are), reporting for duty to work on that plan.

We all know it won't be easy, but we also know that liberty can become a reality when constructed fairly and economically. I (we) will be happy to work with you, and I (we) have real facts and assistance to bring to the table.

Freedom Clearinghouse is a national network of disability rights advocates who work toward the day when every single law-abiding American lives in freedom. We are today gathering materials from sources across the country, materials that will make compliance with Olmstead go more smoothly, more quickly. Those materials will include specific waivers and constructive how-tos from a number of states where significant progress has occurred, even if only for one segment of the population. No state or territory has done the whole job. But every state, including our own, has made some progress for at least one population.

My (our) goal is to bring to the table the best information available. I (we) hope that you will sit down with me (us) within the next 10 days to get acquainted and get liberty under construction for all of us. I shall be calling your office to set the date for that first meeting.

Clearly, you work hard at a very difficult job. The Olmstead ruling will make your job even more difficult for a time. But it's the right thing to do, and I (we) will help you to do it.

With warm regards,

(your name)

Advocate

cc: (your governor)
(the speakers or president of your state legislature)
(your statewide council on independent living) (your HHS Regional Office of Civil Rights)

enclosures