New Mexico Residents Await Waning Waiver

Jenna Montoya, right, and her mother June.

Jenna Montoya is an active 25-year-old who likes going to the movies, the mall and the zoo. She was born with cerebral palsy and has relied on the developmental disability waiver—a state Medicaid program—to improve her quality of life. She gets services like physical therapy and day habilitation. Even after she was placed in one of the state's most high-needs categories, her mom is concerned that alterations to the waiver program on Oct. 1 will mean big cuts to the therapy her daughter receives.
“If Jenna didn’t get the movement she gets in physical therapy, because of the spasticity of cerebral palsy, her joints would atrophy,” June Montoya says. Her daughter also had issues with drooling until she underwent extensive swallow and speech therapy. “None of us can imagine where she would be if she hadn’t had therapies because she’s been getting them since she was 8 years old,” she says, “and just the maintenance is important.”
Right now Jenna Montoya gets an hour of physical therapy every week, which her parents agree has improved her strength, endurance and digestion. As far as the Montoyas have been able to tell, coming changes could mean that she’d have to scale back all therapy to a total of 32 hours per year.