The computer upgrade itch is becoming more difficult to ignore and I spent an inordinate amount of time over the weekend comparing various components. My current rig is certainly no slouch, but it is beginning to stutter just a bit when I’m doing several things at once. Additional power and speed are luxuries rather than necessities, but I’m in the mood to spoil myself. I’ll do my best to future-proof the new system as much as possible so that it’s ready for the forthcoming brain interface that will allow me to take over the world.

Since today is Veterans Day, here’s news that work is beginning in on a memorial for veterans with disabilities in Washington, D.C. More information on plans for the memorial is here. Thousands of vets are coping with physical and mental disabilities acquired during their service and they often receive little support when they return home. This memorial could serve as a good reminder that our obligation to returning veterans doesn’t end when they are discharged. But construction of the memorial should also be accompanied by better access to health care and other supports that will help them succeed as civilians.

NPR ran an excellent story yesterday about kids with severe disabilities who may be forced into institutions when they turn 21. The story profiles a young Illinois woman who is ventilator-dependent who recently turned 21 and is now facing the possibility of losing her nursing care. Like many other states, Illinois’ Medicaid program doesn’t cover in-home services for kids with severe disabilities after they turn 21. Some of you may recall that Nick Dupree, a disability rights activist, faced a similar threat a few years ago in his home state of Alabama. Nick successfully lobbied the Alabama legislature to change its Medicaid laws. But Illinois, which has a $15 billiion deficit on its ledger, is reluctant to do the same. The family is currently suing the state in federal court under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A related story profiles Katie Beckett, a pioneer of sorts in the home care movement. In the early 80s, Beckett was a little girl living in a hospital because of a severe brain infection. She couldn’t go home because Medicaid refused to pay for services in the home. Her story caught the attention of President Reagan, who signed a law creating a Medicaid waiver program that would pay for home and community-based services for kids like Beckett. Beckett is now in her early thirties and living independently in Iowa. This story is particularly fascinating to me because a “Katie Beckett” program in Wisconsin enabled me to stay at home after I became vent-dependent.

The main article points out that Medicaid policymakers didn’t anticipate that kids with such severe disabilities would reach adulthood. To punish them with institutionalization for simply outliving antiquated actuarial expectations is deeply cruel and an absurd policy. States are justified in claiming that a tough economy is tying their hands, but the current Medicaid financing model is fundamentally flawed. Even larger states don’t have the tax base needed to pay for long-term  for an aging population and people with disabilities. The federal government could pick up a greater share of these costs, but the rightward lurch of Congress makes that scenario…unlikely. For now, people with disabilities and their families will have to fight these lonely fights themselves. There’s always hope that the economy will recover and states will be more flush with cash, but that’s little comfort to anyone who is being forced from their home and into a prison.

All the pre- and post-election Sturm und Drang, along with a hectic workweek, was enough to make me temporarily forget that I still haven’t watched the first episode of The Walking Dead. That situation must be remedied. Off I go. See you on the other side of the weekend.

My election projections left a lot to be desired. I lowballed the number of seats that Republicans would take in both the U.S. House and the Minnesota Legislature by a lot. But I can take some comfort in the fact that the takeover of the Legislature also shocked the professional pundits. It should make for an interesting legislative session. It will be doubly interesting because our next governor may not be sworn in until the session is nearly over, depending on the length of the recount process. Pawlenty has already offered to stay on as governor until the matter of his succession has been resolved. That assurance was enough to make state Republicans swoon with adoration.