People with intellectual and other developmental disabilities have the right to comprehensive, appropriate, timely, affordable, and accessible medical, dental and habilitative services throughout their lives. Comprehensive health care must be provided, regardless of a person’s ability to pay.
It is The Arc New York’s position that:
- Comprehensive Health Care must:
- Include quality primary care, specialty medical care, dental care, oral health, clinical, behavioral health, and habilitative services based on the person’s medical and developmental diagnosis;
- Preserve and/or improve the person’s physical or psychological health and overall well-being;
- Include care coordination that will integrate comprehensive health care services, enhance health care outcomes, and avoid duplication of services, which may reduce costs;
- Be available, accessible, affordable and timely;
- Be provided only with the informed consent of the person receiving services, legal guardian, surrogate decision-making committee or, any other legally authorized person.
- The Health Care Decision Maker must:
- Have the legal capacity to give consent;
- Be given sufficient information to understand the benefits and risks of the
proposed treatment; - Be offered the opportunity to ask questions and receive complete answers in a
manner understandable to the decision maker; - Never be forced to accept or reject a particular treatment through deceit, threat or for reasons that relate to the convenience of the provider.
- Be selected by the person receiving services as a collaborative partner to the fullest extent possible.
- Properly obtained and documented advance directives must be honored for persons with intellectual and other developmental disabilities;
- Public policy must guarantee that health insurance coverage for persons with intellectual and other developmental disabilities is comprehensive in scope covering all physical and behavioral health issues, has a competitive rate structure with flexibility that allows for integrated service delivery, covering all
health and health-related services, equal in every respect to that afforded to the general population; - In the delivery of health care services to people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities, providers and caregivers must educate the medical community on research-based best practices;
- Direct Service Providers who accompany people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities in health care settings should receive training in how to effectively navigate those encounters
