Alaska draws 50 people a year off a disability waitlist that has passed 800

Alaska takes 50 people a year off the waitlist for the Medicaid waiver that lets someone with an intellectual or developmental disability live at home instead of in a facility. Four years ago the Legislature ordered the Department of Health to produce a plan for eliminating that waitlist permanently.

The list has grown instead. A 2022 state report counted 438 people on it, with a five-year average wait. The Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities has told the state in public comment that it now runs past 800 and is still climbing, and that the annual draws are falling short. At 50 a year, 800 people is sixteen years of backlog.

Devin Agnes got through it. A Nulato tribal member with cerebral palsy diagnosed at birth, he obtained a waiver for home-based care with help from Tanana Chiefs Conference. Weekly Teams meetings let him share updates, ask questions and say what he needed while the group worked through assessments and paperwork. Sarah Russell of the Fairbanks Rescue Mission drove him to appointments, and the Alaska Center for Children and Adults took part.

"We all had a piece that we were knowledgeable about," said Lisa Donat of Tanana Chiefs Conference.

The IDD waiver is one of five Medicaid home and community-based waivers Alaska runs, and the only one with a waitlist. Its federal renewal runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031. Tanana Chiefs Conference's own developmental disabilities grant ended in 2018, and it now refers families to the state.