Alaska disability advocates fear impacts from federal lawsuit in which state says Medicaid services are at risk

Yahoo

26-02-2025

Feb. 26—JUNEAU — A coalition of Alaska disability advocates is raising concerns about the potential impacts of a federal lawsuit the state joined in September.
Alaska and 16 other states filed the suit — State of Texas et al v. Becerra et al — in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The states challenged regulations the Biden administration enacted last year to update disability discrimination law in areas such as health care, education and employment.
The regulations amended Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act that was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1973, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating against people with disabilities.
The 17 Republican-led states joined the complaint for various reasons. The Biden administration's regulations stated that "gender dysphoria" may be considered a disability for discrimination protections, the states argued. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who initiated the lawsuit, sought to challenge those protections.
But that was not the impetus for the state of Alaska joining the lawsuit.
The Alaska Department of Law in September said the Biden administration's "sweeping" new regulations would impose "unfunded mandates" on states, particularly for Medicaid services in Alaska.
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said the state risked losing federal funding if it failed to comply with the law. He said substantial costs could be borne by the state, and Medicaid providers may stop offering services if the regulations survive.
Republicans in Congress this week advanced a spending plan that calls for cutting billions of dollars from Medicaid. The Section 504 issue is unrelated.
Disability advocates across the U.S., and in Alaska, have been outraged and concerned by the suit. The 48-page complaint contains language asking that Texas Judge James Hendrix strike down Section 504, although the states on Feb. 19 filed a joint status report that clarified they are not seeking to have Section 504 eliminated in its entirety.
Instead, the legal challenge would focus on requirements that disabled Americans get services in the "most integrated setting" — meaning in places where disabled people can interact with other people as much as possible, the states said.
Taylor said there had been "misunderstandings" and "misinformation" about the suit.
"Despite the fearmongering going on, the reality is that if the new rule is allowed to stand, there will be less services available for those who currently receive benefits under Section 504," he said by email last week.
The state of Alaska, in its complaint, said "it is not fiscally feasible for its system of care to provide all services across the State in the Final Rule's definition of the most integrated setting in every instance."
The Statewide Independent Living Council of Alaska and several other disability advocacy groups said 90,000 Alaskans rely on discrimination protections through Section 504. They wrote a letter to Taylor last week, urging him to withdraw the state from the lawsuit.
"You directly attack every Alaskan with a disability, along with their friends, families, and communities," the groups said.
In their five-page letter, Alaska disability advocates pushed back against the state's assertions. They said the Biden administration's regulations do not impose new requirements for community-based care. The state can also get exemptions, they said.
"A lot of the claims as they lay out are actual issues with Section 504 itself, and not anything implemented by the Final Rule (put in place by the Biden administration)," said Amanda Coelho, assistant executive director of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Alaska.
Mark Regan, legal director of the Disability Law Center of Alaska, said the new regulations clarified existing requirements. But he said they were not new.
"I'm skeptical that Medicaid providers — or potential Medicaid providers — in Alaska are being discouraged from doing anything because of the Section 504 regulations," he said in a Friday interview.
Regan added it was "a good thing" for disability advocates that the lawsuit in Texas appeared to be moving slowly. Judge Hendrix requested the next status update from the states in April.