On Monday, March 24 the National Council on Disability – an independent federal agency that recommends disability policy to the President, Congress and other federal agencies – will conduct a forum on “Medicaid Managed Care: Building Community Systems for Care” in partnership with Access Living at 115 West Chicago Avenue Chicago, Illinois. The forum is open to the public and can be attended in-person or by phone.

At least 26 states across the nation, including Illinois, California, Florida, and New York are rolling out mandatory programs that seek to put billions of public dollars into privately managed long-term care plans. But pressures of cost containment and profit motive have revealed hidden pitfalls in the approach. In many cases, care has been denied after needs grew costlier — including care that people received under previous systems.