For more than 10 years, Lutheran Services in American Disability Network (LSA-DN) has worked to support and to improve Medicaid home and community-based services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who want to live and work in the community. During the current economic downturn, LSA-DN plays the important role of identifying public policy improvements that will strengthen Medicaid and address the growing need for services to support community living.

The occasion of Medicaid’s 45th Birthday, July 30, 2010, is a perfect time to offer a toast to Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) and to point out important changes needed in the program. LSA-DN invites your organization to participate in the Medicaid birthday celebration by hosting events and activities, reaching out to the media through letters to the editor and press statements, and engaging with policymakers on ways to ensure that Medicaid works for everyone who needs services. This is the time to engage staff at all levels as well as consumers and families. Beyond the significant goal of highlighting Medicaid’s successes, LSA-DN hopes this organized Medicaid birthday effort will both raise the visibility of the member organizations and LSA-DN’s work and connect LSA-DN members with each other in coordinated activities.

Knowing that your organizations are very busy, LSA-DN is providing you with a Medicaid Birthday Toolkit attached to this letter. This toolkit includes event ideas, fact sheets, talking points and sample fliers, press statements and letters to the editor.

We hope you will join us in this opportunity to celebrate Medicaid, to encourage good public policy and to educate our communities, policymakers and the media. If you have any questions or want to report on your organization’s activities around Medicaid’s birthday, please contact Meg Cooch at 202-626-7949 or mcooch@lutheranservices.org. Thank you for your great work!


Jeri Schoonover, Chair of the Policy and Advocacy
Meg Cooch, Team Director of Policy and Advocacy