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(WASHINGTON DC) Reeling from massive planned cuts to the nation’s Medicaid program, ADAPT is going to the nation’s capitol September 17-22 to tell Congress and the President, “Don’t target poor people with disabilities!” If enacted, the already planned cuts and proposed legislation will force even more older and disabled Americans out of their own homes and into nursing homes.
“I feel like I’ve got a target painted on my back,” said Randy Alexander, ADAPT Organizer in Tennessee, and one of the leaders of the 3 month old Citizens to Save TennCare protest at the Tennessee state capitol.
“We are getting hit by draconian cuts in our own state, and by frightening cuts and legislation planned by the federal government. And all this is happening at a time when our brothers and sisters with and without disabilities in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama who survived hurricane Katrina need a solid, comprehensive Medicaid program more than ever.”
When George W. Bush assumed the Presidency in 2001, one of his first acts was to issue his New Freedom Initiative, focused on removing the barriers that keep people with disabilities and older Americans from full participation in their communities, and from fully accessing all government services and programs. Despite this presidential directive, Congress has yet to pass legislation, including Money Follows the Person (S 528; HR 3063) and MiCASSA (S 401; HR 901), that would remove the Medicaid institutional bias and give people choice to receive long term services in the community.
“People with disabilities need long term services and supports, as will many of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina who have lost their homes, and life as they knew it. Now is not the time for Congress to pit the needs of the survivors against the ongoing needs of poor people with disabilities,” said Bob Liston, ADAPT Organizer from Montana who has over 20 family members displaced by Hurricane Katrina. “Congress shouldn’t be trying to put bandaids on our dysfunctional support system, but should be enacting legislation like Money Follows the Person to provide needed reform that will improve our community support infrastructure for everyone.”
Currently, nursing homes in a number of states don’t provide care for people who use ventilators. If individual states don’t provide community-based care for those ventilator users, they are shipped off to nursing homes in other states. Such is the case for over 15 ventilator users from West Virginia who have been sent away from their families and communities to nursing homes in Ohio. Tennessee is similarly poised to send ventilator users to nursing homes in other states as Gov. Bredesen has cut from the budget the services that kept them living in their own homes. Legislation like Money Follows the Person and MiCASSA would remedy this situation by allowing people to stay in or return to their own homes
Another mounting national crisis is the profound lack of affordable, accessible housing across the country. Such housing is critical for people wanting to move out of, or avoid, nursing homes and other institutions. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina there is an exponentially increased demand for affordable housing to accommodate survivors with and without disabilities who are now homeless.
“There aren’t enough resources to meet the current demand,” said Beto Berrera, ADAPT organizer and housing specialist from Chicago. “And with the drastically increased need caused by Katrina, people with disabilities will likely be pushed off the housing waiting lists by survivors of the hurricane. This should not be a Sophie’s choice. In a country that can send people to the moon, there should be enough for everyone.”
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