Capitol Hill Success
ADAPT's demand for Hearings on CCA is met
ADAPT Action Report: Wednesday, May 2, 2007.By Tim Wheat
(WASHINGTON DC) ADAPT activists spent the day on Capitol Hill contacting lawmakers about the importance of the Community Choice Act (CCA, S. 799 and HR 1621). Introduced in March, CCA will end the nationwide institutional bias in Medicaid funding and give Americans with disabilities the real supports and services they need to get out of expensive institutions and rejoin community life.
The demographics of our nation are changing, the population is aging and more people with disabilities need assistance with daily living tasks. Although community services have been shown to be less expensive on average than institutional services, and home and community services are clearly better liked by individuals, most public funding goes to facilities. In FY 2005 67% of our total $94.5 billion long term care Medicaid dollars ($63.3 billion) are spent on nursing homes and other institutional services, leaving only 33% ($31.2 billion) for all community services.
Beyond the statistics, ADAPT has recorded a small part of the human tragedy in the a DVD that activists delivered to every Congress member today. The recording is from the 2006 historic Day of Testimony in Nashville Tennessee where about sixty people gave testimony over seven hours concerning the shameful and inhuman conditions that are forced on people with disabilities in this country. Although CCA is a better use of our public funds, the real reason the United States needs CCA is to stop the human catastrophe.
“People have been receptive,” said Cecil Walker of Kansas, who spent the day making Congressional visits. “Unfortunately the legislative policy workers have been out or in meetings all day.”
Following up on ongoing efforts to get the support of the Republican National Committee, ADAPT members met with Mike Duncan the Committee Chair. Mr. Duncan agreed to send communication to state and local organizers to cooperate with state ADAPT organizers but they would not yet endorse the bipartisan legislation. Introduced ten years ago by then Representative Newt Gingrich, the Community Choice Act has gone through some changes and improvements, most recently the name change from CASA when Gingrich introduced it in 1997, to MiCASA and MiCASSA.
This week ADAPT has been productive. Yesterday, ADAPT heard positive statements from the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development concerning vouchers and a new working relationship with ADAPT. Later that same day, ADAPT activists stormed the headquarters of the American Hospital Association and blocked their garage demanding that they develop a discharge protocol that does not send individuals to nursing homes just because of her disability. The AHA agreed to meet with ADAPT in May.
On Monday 99 ADAPT activists were arrested when they took over offices in the Rayburn House Office Building and demanded hearings on CCA. The Capitol Police acted fast and quickly arrested the demonstrators, but the message permeated the walls of Congress. When members of Pennsylvania ADAPT told Sen. Arlen Specter’s staff today that they were not leaving until the Senator called for hearings on CCA, Sen. Specter was located and he wrote a letter requesting hearings “at the earliest possible date.”
Sunday ADAPT held the Fun Run for Disability Rights in Upper Senate Park. The weather was perfect for the run and organizers say that the event will raise as much as $75 thousand to defray costs to activists attending the national action.