Incitement
Volume 20 No. 2 A Publication of
ADAPT Spring 2004
ADAPT/Incitement
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Incitement is produced from the
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No More Stolen
Lives!
ADAPT Sends Message To
DC Policy-makers
As a welcome to DC, ADAPT opened the
week’s worth of actions with a sunset march and candlelight vigil at the White
House. The Bush administration has given much lip service to Real Choice and
increasing community services, but they have been stonewalling on many of the
changes they have committed to ADAPT that they would make. In September they
had committed to having their Money Follows the Person bill, known as The
New
Freedom Initiative Medicaid
Demonstration
Act, introduced by the end of the month. Here we were in March with no bill in
sight. ADAPTers from around the nation were fed up
with a President who, after such talk, was cutting spending for community
services in his FY 2004-2005 Medicaid budgets.
So, led by those
who had survived being stuck in nursing homes and other institutions, 500 ADAPTers marched through the cold winter evening and
gathered in front of the White House for a candlelight vigil for those still
stuck inside - thanks to the institutional bias in Medicaid, the
Administration’s failure to act, and the cuts that will worsen the system.
“For those of us at the end of the
line, there was no room left on the sidewalk, which was a good thing,”
explained Linda Anthony. “With everyone facing the White House, we listened as
person after person told how their lives had been stolen and how they came to
be with us. I don’t know about anyone else, but even as cold as I was, I felt
warm as hell inside, to know that we were here together again, set and ready to
fight these horrible injustices.”
“We want the President to hear loud
and clear,” said Cassie James of Philly ADAPT “that we are tired of having to
wait for our freedom, and we demand an end to the institutional bias. We want
No More Stolen Lives!”
How Do You Spell Cold?
“The sun wasn’t even up,
temperatures were in the low 20s but ADAPT - bundled in scarves, hats, gloves
and ponchos - rolled out. Just 2 blocks over, unaware of what was headed their
way [Health and Human Services] HHS started their day” Linda Anthony
remembered.
500 members of ADAPT staged a
“lie-in” around the Health and Human Services Building Monday, demanding that
HHS leaders restart the process to reverse the institutional bias and stop
their double talk about making change. ADAPT has always believed that actions
speak louder than words.
By
“When our group arrived on the
plaza, people were already dismounting” Linda Anthony reported. “With little
regard for their own comfort, people climbed onto the white foam where they
would spend the next 6 hours. Nothing would move them. Neither freezing winds,
nor the lack of food made them leave.”
“At our door, the Blue and Purple
groups parked their power wheelchairs against the door.” Chris Hilderbrant said.
People then got out of their wheelchairs to lie on the mats on the
ground. Vladimir Pelkah from
It took six hours and near
hypothermia for several folks, but ADAPT prevailed. With HHS Sec. Tommy
Thompson out of the country, Dennis Smith, Acting Administrator for the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services, met outside in the cold with all 500 ADAPT
members. Pressed by ADAPT, Smith issued a letter committing incoming CMS
Administrator, Mark McClellan to a meeting with ADAPT within 30 days. With
phone confirmation from McClellan, Smith also promised that regular meetings
between ADAPT and HHS officials would resume.
“Four years ago when President Bush
issued his New Freedom Initiative, and his Executive Order mandating
implementation of the US Supreme Court Olmstead decision, we believed him,”
said Steve Verriden, Wisconsin ADAPT Organizer. “But
here we are four years later, facing the worst Medicaid cuts in history, which
will without a doubt keep people illegally confined in nursing homes and other
institutions, and force even more people into those settings. This loss of
personal freedom, and all the President’s empty
promises are unconscionable because they mean more stolen lives.”
More and more states, in financial
stress, continue to cut optional Medicaid community based services. The
drumbeat for tax cuts ringing in their ears and Federal Medicaid policy
requirements that they fund institutional programs,
means states have little choice but to cut services. Bush’s proposed cuts for
the next year’s budget will result in more people having no choice other than
the nursing homes.
“As I sit here looking at all my
colleagues, of all colors all disabilities, most of who have been in some sort
of institution or nursing home, I am continually reminded of how important the
passage of MiCASSA is to people with disabilities. We need to have consumer control
and community based services as mandatory components of the Medicaid long term
care program. We cannot leave any person behind in this fight for freedom.” Bob
Liston commented. “I have been in the nursing home
and will not go back. This is a personal issue; this is a systemic issue for
me. This is basic civil and human rights. This is a no-brainer!”
As the protesters received
assistance to return to their wheelchairs, 15 ADAPT members met with Smith
inside HHS to negotiate on the additional ADAPT demands. Smith and HHS agreed
to meet one of those demands by issuing a “Dear State Medicaid Director’s
letter.” The letter will underscore for states that they currently have the
ability, with no regulatory or legislative changes, to move people from nursing
homes and institutions by transferring the funding to the preferred community
services. States like
Further, the letter will encourage
all states to utilize this strategy to provide more home and community based
services, as per the US Supreme Court Olmstead decision that ruled that
forced institutionalization of people who can be served in the community amounts
to illegal segregation.
“We’re here in
[Editors Note: ADAPT
met with CMS Administrator Mark McClellan on April 28th.]
Congress Gets the People’s Hearing!
Tuesday March 23rd started easily
enough. We didn’t pull out of the hotel until
A quick lunch in the park, and we
were off to the Senate. Many hours later, our materials were distributed and
all of ADAPT converged on the Senate Finance Committee room. “A steady flow of ADAPTers soon filled the hearing room to capacity and ADAPT
convened a people’s hearing on MiCASSA,” explained Chris Hilderbrant,
“because Senator Grassley and the Senate Finance Committee had failed to act.
Powerful chants soon disrupted “business as usual” for that entire hallway of
the Dirksen building. Chants demanding a MiCASSA hearing echoed throughout the
halls.”
Driven by years of frustration and
lie after lie, ADAPT members saturated the hearing room and halls outside.
Senator Grassley’s staff soon appeared but negotiations fell completely apart
when his Chief of Staff refused to put their offer in writing nor would Senator
Grassley come to speak to the ADAPT activists.
Hilderbrant
continued, “negotiations with Sen. Grassley’s staff broke down when they refused
to commit to anything in writing. With little hope for resolution, ADAPT was
determined to stay.” Too many broken promises and tired of being ignored, ADAPT
would cooperate no longer. Seven solid hours of chanting told Congress this was
no small matter.
Finally, around
“The chanting inside the hearing
room never let up. Those of us that didn’t fit in the room could feel the
energy through the walls. It fed our anger and our resolve” Hilderbrant
said. “We’d rather go to jail than to die in a nursing home,” and that’s what
we did.
On Wednesday, however,
representatives of ADAPT and three other organizations, the National Council on
Independent Living, Paralyzed Veterans of America and Advancing Independence
Modernizing Medicare and Medicaid, met with Finance Committee ranking Democrat,
Senator Max Baucus (MT), who committed to add MiCASSA and MFPA to a Hearing
that had quickly been set for April 7 to focus on ending the institutional bias
in Medicaid long term care. ADAPT would testify at the hearing.
Why Doesn’t AARP Care if Low Income
Seniors are Forced from Their Homes?
Also on Wednesday, hundreds of ADAPT
members followed up on a long term concern we have had. Namely,
why AARP is apparently fine with having seniors on Medicaid forced from their
homes and into nursing homes because of the institutional bias in the system.
ADAPT has raised the issue with them before, and they try and duck it. But with
many of the people coming out of nursing homes being well over 65 (70% in Texas
where money follows the person has had the longest track record), it is time
for their so-called advocates to get off their duffs and show support for real
choice, MiCASSA, and Money Follows the Person. So ADAPT marched over to AARP
Headquarters and delivered a letter to CEO William D. Novelli,
calling for a meeting to work on ways AARP can actively support MiCASSA, and
continue to partner with ADAPT on issues of mutual concern. AARP committed that
the meeting will take place before July 4th.
“It’s no wonder they want tighter
security than some Congressional office buildings,” remarked one 67 year old in
the crowd, “as they sit there in their marble towers and deal away Senior’s
Medicare and now their right to grow old in their own homes!”
[Thanks to
Marsha Katz, Linda Anthony, Chris Hilderbrant, Bob Liston and Tim Wheat for their contributions included in
this article. For more details and pictures visit the ADAPT website
www.adapt.org]
Average Annual Cost of
Nursing Home Care
State by State - 2003
According to a 2003 GE Financial
survey of more than 2000 nursing homes, the average nursing home cost was
$57,700 per person.
The highest was
Costs in or near
large metropolitan areas, such as
DC - $82,800
Information taken from Kiplinger’s
Retirement Report - March 2004.
Compiled by The ADAPT Community.
www.adapt.org
adapt@adapt.org
(512)
442-0252
Stay Informed with ADAPT
Incitement comes but a few
times a year. Would you like more timely news on ADAPT, MiCASSA, Money
Following the Person and Freeing Our People? ADAPT has an e-mail list which has
more frequent information on these and related topics.
Subscribe to the ADAPT E-Mail List!
It’s easy! If you would like to get
on the ADAPT update list for MiCASSA and related issues, here’s how. Send an
E-Mail from your preferred E-Mail mailbox in the following manner:
Heading:
To: Majordomo@adapt.org
Subject: subscribe micasa-list
Body of the message:
subscribe
micasa-list end
You MUST maintain an E-Mail account
at a stable address for receipt of E-Mail. You’ll need to subscribe again to
the list server if you move your E-Mail mailbox. Addresses that do not work
will be removed. If you have problems please let me know at adapt@adapt.org
There’s also lots of good info on
the ADAPT website www.adapt.org. Resources, updates, photos, back issues of
Incitement and much more.
And last but not least, if you want
to get on our ADAPT newsletter mailing list and aren’t on there already, send
me your name, snail mail address & phone.
Thanks,
Stephanie
ADAPT’s
Summer Action
States Hold the Key
NGA Meets in
With an ever-increasing push against
Federalism and toward states rights, we must look to the states for at least
part of the solution to Freeing Our People.
Ironically, states are more and more
in fiscal straights and Medicaid is a big part of their budgets. Medicaid
reform is looming large on the horizon.
State by state we are seeing threats
and big cuts in community services while the institutional services cruise
along!
Even if we got what we wanted
tomorrow, States would be the ones to implement it.
States are making token efforts to
comply with Olmstead, yet compared to what could have been done, few
have been freed.
In July the National Governor’s
Association (NGA) will meet in
Governors are already convening
discussions on long term care. Governor Kempthorne of
Time for action is NOW! Join us in
Get Ready, Get Set!
Our Fall
action is really a Summer action this year.
ADAPT will be headed to Seattle to
petition the Governors of our fair states for truth, justice and the American
dream for people with disabilities incarcerated in nursing homes and other
institutions.
As the “States Rights” approach to
government grows more and more powerful, Governor’s play a bigger and bigger
role.
ADAPT will be there to Free Our People.
Court Supports Disability Rights
of
Laguna Honda Residents
A kind of Christmas present for the
disability community, in December a preliminary settlement of the Laguna Honda
class-action lawsuit (Davis et al. v. California Health and Human Services
Agency et al.) against the city of San Francisco and several state agencies.
In the settlement,
Misnamed a hospital and
rehabilitation center, Laguna Honda, in fact had become a kind of holding pen
for thousands of people with disabilities on Medicaid. Never mind Stephen King,
people who had gone for allegedly short-term stays and eight, ten years later,
were still there with no departure in sight. Thirty bed wards were the only
option for most inmates. People who were simply blind; people whose parents
(with whom they had lived) had become disabled and been sent there were sent
along too, and when the parent died the “child” was kept; people whose
discharge plan read it was time for community placement yet five or more years
later no action had been taken. You like tragedy? Read the Department of Justice
findings or the court documents of this case!
The agreement could affect about
1,000 current Laguna Honda residents, about 10,000 current state patients and
any future patients, Kim Swain, an attorney with Protection and Advocacy Inc.
told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The court is scheduled rule on final
approval of the agreement in July 2004.
The plaintiffs have the option to refile the portion of the case that seeks the actual
provision of community services to people at SFGH and LHH after the new community-based
assessment program is established and has been operating for six months. The
need for community-based services and the capacity of
According to the Chronicle,
The U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division investigation
strengthened the lawsuit. DOJ found that indeed
Yet City officials told the Chronicle
their plans remained the same. Construction is slated to start this summer and
end in 2009. Ominously, Aleeta Van Runkle, the city attorney’s chief of neighborhood and
community services told the Chronicle “I think those needs (for Laguna
Honda’s services) will continue to exist.”
In light of the draconian cuts
Californians are facing, one has to wonder what
Is Soylent Green next?
Presidential Candidate Responses to ADAPT
Survey
In the fall of 2003, ADAPT asked the
Candidates for President from both parties to respond to a survey on their
positions related to Real Choice, Freeing Our People and related issues.
Despite repeated mailings, e-mails and
phone calls we received no response from President Bush. His campaign staff
said they might respond in March, but they never did. Below are the responses
of Senator Kerry.
1. Do
you support the passage and full implementation of the Medicaid Community
Attendant Services and Supports Act, MiCASSA?
w Kerry: Yes,
Americans with Disabilities must be assured equal access to quality home and
community living services. I am an original cosponsor of MiCASSA and the Money
Follows the Person Act. Passage of both of these bills is vital to ending the
institutional bias that makes it impossible for millions of Americans to
exercise the most basic of human liberties: freedom, choice, and independence.
I support increasing funding for independent living centers, areas agencies on
aging and similar local organizations to build capacity and support people with
disabilities in moving out of or keeping from needlessly going into a nursing
home or another institution. I will work to provide decent wages and benefits
to the community based services workers who help make independence possible.
2. Do
you support the passage of legislation that will implement the concept of Money
Follows the Person that is included in S.1394?
w Kerry: Yes,
see #1.
3. Will
you work with the states to assure they implement the Supreme Court’s Olmstead
decision so all people with disabilities, old and young, have the right to
support services in the most integrated setting?
w Kerry: Yes.
3a. What specific actions would you take?
w Kerry: We must
fully implement the Olmstead decision. I believe that states must be given
increased resources and tools to carry out the Olmstead decision and must be
held accountable for doing so. As with racial segregation, we must put an end
to the institutional bias that prevents millions of Americans of all ages from
living fuller lives in their own homes and communities. States are experiencing
tough fiscal times and many are slashing Medicaid funding for home and
community based services. The Bush Administration has done nothing to stop this
from happening. I am committed to finding ways to relieve these pressures on
states and make certain that people with disabilities and older Americans
receive the support they need to live in their own homes and communities.
However, unless we make it a top
priority to help alleviate the financial burdens that the states presently
face, which are restricting their abilities to implement the Olmstead decision,
we won’t be giving the states and Congress all the tools they need to end the
institutional bias. That’s why I have proposed a $40 billion dollar state and
local tax refund. By helping states’ financial outlook we can more effectively
empower them to collaborate in partnership with the federal government in
implementing the Olmstead decision.
Moreover, we cannot implement the
Olmstead decision and increase home and community-based services unless there
is an adequate supply of housing. Presently, there is a severe shortage of
housing that is safe, accessible, and affordable for people with disabilities.
Improving our housing infrastructure includes increasing support for the
Section 8 voucher program to broaden access for non-elderly persons with
disabilities, as well as Section 811 for people with severe disabilities;
increasing production of affordable housing; and providing incentives for the
builders to adopt visitability in their design and
construction.
4. Will
you appoint a Secretary of Health and Human Services that will have a Community
First philosophy and will review all Medicare and Medicaid policies with the
intention of removing all policies that contribute to the institutional bias
that exists in the current long term care system?
w Kerry: Yes, my
Secretary of Health and Human Services will have a Community First philosophy.
There is an institutional bias that must be reversed to ensure that Americans
with disabilities of every age have the services and supports to live in the
community of their choice. To do this, I will appoint a national bipartisan
Community First Commission made up of Members of Congress, Governors,
distinguished older Americans, veterans, Americans with disabilities and other
experts. The commission will identify short and long term policy reforms that
could and should be pursued to:
* Guarantee that all
Americans with disabilities who can live in their community with affordable
supports have equal opportunity to do so regardless of age, disability, State
of residence, employment status or form of assistance required.
* Create a greater
federal role in equitably financing and enhancing the quality and
appropriateness of all long-term services.
* Eliminate the
institutional bias in Medicaid and Medicare that robs millions of Americans of
their most basic freedoms, dignity and daily independence.
The commission will submit findings
and recommendations to the Kerry Administration and the leadership in both
houses of Congress by
5. Will
you appoint a high level task force to review the funding of long term services
and supports and make recommendations on concrete ways to reverse the
institutional funding bias?
w Kerry: Yes, I
am the only candidate for President in either party to propose creating such a
commission and I will do this in my first 100 days in office. Many say
reversing the institutional bias that pervades so much of our health financing
systems and robs so many Americans of the opportunity to live full lives is
impossible. I believe it is not only possible but imperative to the future of
our Nation. See #4.
6. Will
you support/develop long term service and support policies that enhance the
consumer direction/self determination of personal attendant services by
allowing persons to select, manage and dismiss attendants?
w Kerry: Yes, I
believe we should work to enhance consumer directed care. People with
disabilities deserve the right to make decisions that directly impact their own
lives and the services and supports they need. That includes selecting,
managing and dismissing attendants.
7. Will
you support/develop long term service and support policies that will de-medicalize personal attendant services by allowing
physician/nurse assignment/delegation as well as tasks being defined as non
medical?
w Kerry: Yes, I
will develop policies that enable people with disabilities to access
non-medical services which improve their quality of life. To make Medicare and
Medicaid more responsive to the needs of people with disabilities of all ages,
I will direct HHS to identify cost effective ways that best promote the health,
independence and productivity of people with disabilities and improve upon the
permanent risk adjustment payment system to promote better health care.
8 . Will you support/develop long term
service and support policies that will develop wage and benefit incentives so
that there is a large pool of attendants available to meet the growing personal
attendant service needs in this country? Currently you can make more money
working in a fast food restaurant than as an attendant.
w Kerry: Yes, we
need to recruit and train more highly motivated Americans to become attendants,
home health aides, nurses and paraprofessionals. These individuals work around
the clock to make it possible for millions of children, adults and older
Americans with disabilities to live in their own homes and communities. We need
to make sure these indispensable workers are well compensated, receive
appropriate health coverage and other opportunities to advance in their life
and career.
Margaret Mead said that every
society must be ultimately judged by how much it values and supports its very
young, its very old and those with disabilities. Today, we also must judge
ourselves by a fourth critical criterion: how well we value, compensate and
support those whose job it is to assist Americans with significant disabilities
of every age with such essential tasks as eating, bathing, dressing, using the
bathroom, and going to school or work.
Sadly, we are failing badly at this throughout the nation. Together, we
can and must change this.
9. Do
you support the integration mandate in the Americans with Disabilities Act,
w Kerry: Yes.
9a. If elected what actions will you take to protect this right?
w Kerry: The
integration mandate is a federal civil right. The letter and intent of the ADA
is to put an end to the segregation that persons with disabilities historically
have suffered, and June 22, 1999, marked a pivotal moment in that effort. On
that date, the United States Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C. that under
some circumstances, the
I believe that the
de-institutionalization and integration of persons with disabilities into the
community is of fundamental importance. By providing persons with disabilities
the opportunity to work, participate in civic life, and become community
leaders, we strengthen our entire community. As President, I would support
programs such as MiCASSA that promote integration of persons with disabilities.
10. Will
you include people with disabilities, including ADAPT members, in the
development of all policies that effect the community
long term service and support system?
w Kerry: Yes, absolutely. People with disabilities
will always have a seat front and center in the Kerry Administration. I have
released a comprehensive platform on disability issues which was developed in
collaboration with leaders of the disability community from across the country.
When I am President, Americans with Disabilities will play active roles not
only in policy-making which effects the community long
term service and support system but in every single area of public policy.
Statement from John Kerry
March 22, 2004, Washington, DC - John
Kerry, Democratic Candidate for President, issued the following statement on ADAPT’s demand to be “heard” on removing the institutional
bias in Medicaid.
“I applaud the more than 400 ADAPT
activists uniting in Washington, D.C. to demand their voices be heard regarding
the critically important issue of ending the immoral institutional bias in the
Medicaid program. We must no longer treat Americans with disabilities as second
class citizens by failing to respect the fundamental human and civil rights of
people with disabilities of all ages to live where they choose.”
“President Bush has promised New
Freedom for people with disabilities. But, the policies he’s pursuing undercut
the “real freedom” that people with disabilities deserve and are entitled to by
virtue of their citizenship. Like all of us, people with disabilities want to
live the American Dream. But many lack even the choice as to where they live.
“I have heard your voices loud and
clear, and have demonstrated this with my vision for Americans with
Disabilities based on Freedom,
“I am firmly opposed to the Bush
administration’s proposals to turn Medicaid into a block grant to the States. I
believe we must strengthen and protect Medicaid, not tear it apart. We should
help states carry out the Olmstead decision and enact MiCASSA and the Money
Follows the Person Act. As with racial segregation, we must put an end to the
institutional bias in Medicaid that prevents millions of Americans of all ages
from experiencing freedom, independence and choice.”
“Finally, I
promise as President one of my first orders of business will be to adopt a
Community First policy by creating a national bipartisan Community First
Commission made up of Members of Congress, Governors, distinguished older
Americans, veterans, people with disabilities and other experts to work to
assure that all people with and without disabilities have the freedom,
independence and choice they rightfully deserve.”
High Court Upholds Rules
in
Disabilities Act
In Previous Cases, the Court Has Limited
the Effect of the
The Associated Press
The 1990 Americans With Disabilities
Act properly gives private citizens such as George Lane the right to seek money
in court if a state fails to live up to the law’s requirements, a 5-to-4
majority ruled.
In previous cases, the high court
has repeatedly limited the effect of the
At issue in Lane’s case was the
right of private citizens to try to pursue alleged violations of the
“The unequal treatment of disabled
persons in the administration of judicial services has a long history” that has
persisted despite anti-discrimination laws, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for
himself and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
and Stephen Breyer.
The case began when Lane tried to
sue the state of
Lane crawled up the Polk County
courthouse steps once for an appearance in a reckless driving case, but was
arrested in 1996 for failing to appear in court when he refused to crawl a
second time. Courthouse employees have said he also refused offers of help.
The state claimed that Congress went
too far in writing the
Stevens said Congress had ample
evidence of discrimination when it wrote the part of the law at issues in
Lane’s case. Called Title II, it guarantees that the disabled will have access
to government services.
“It is not difficult to perceive the
harm that Title II is designed to address,” Stevens wrote. Congress enacted
Title II against a backdrop of pervasive unequal treatment in the administration
of state services and programs, including systematic deprivations of
fundamental rights.”
The case is the latest in a series
of conflicts over states’ rights and the powers of Congress, but it did not
come out like most of the others.
In a series of cases since the late
1990s, O’Connor has sided with the court’s core conservatives to form a five-
member majority that has gradually expanded the sovereign rights of state
governments while limiting federal control and congressional power.
Chief Justice William
H. Rehnquist, chief architect of that states rights push, dissented in Monday’s
case. Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and
Clarence Thomas also dissented.
Around
the Nation:
Small Can
be Beautiful!! Here’s How It’s Done
A small group of five went to the
Watertown Housing Authority Mid Town Towers to see Senator Schumer speak. We
carried our bright flourscent signs about MiCASSA.
Greeted with some trepidation, as they thought we were there to protest against
Schumer, we let the the group of seniors know we were
there to show support for Senator Schumer as a sponsor of MiCASSA and also for
MiCASSA itself. Relaxing some, they asked what MiCASSA was and I was quick with
the handouts. [Editors Note: This is great since Seniors
need MiCASSA too but generally don’t hear about it from their advocacy
networks.]
Then the head of the Waterown Housing Authority came along and asked us to leave
because our signs were not allowed in the building. We didn’t argue, but rather
stepped outside to the front doors. There we were greeted by WWTI TV 50. They
asked us about our signs and MiCASSA and if they could interview us. We happily
agreed. They spoke to me first and Aileen Martin covered more when I got stuck.
Then the gentleman from the
Watertown Housing Authority came outside and asked us what our issue was. We
explained our position and he apologized, welcoming us back in. So back in we
went.
The paper, a radio and a TV station
interviewed us about MiCASSA before Senator Schumer arrived.
When Senator Schumer arrived, he
walked through the aisle to the podium and stopped to check out our signs. He
said “MiLASSA?” (I wasn’t hired for my drawing
ability). Then we said “no MiCASSA, you sponsor it.” He said yes he knew what
MiCASSA was and supports it. He went and gave his speech on stopping the move
to change Social Security. He took questions from the floor.
When all questions about the Social
Security topic were covered he looked back to us and said, “Do you folks that
are here for MiCASSA want to say anything?” Point blank we told him that we
need Congress to move now and get hearings started on MiCASSA. Also Rebecca
spoke up on how long we have been fighting for MiCASSA and on how much money
the government can save with MiCASSA through deinstitutionalization.
I did approach Schumer at the end to
personally thank him for sponsoring MiCASSA. In a hurry, he and his staffer
took the time to speak to as many of us as possible.
It was an awesome experience!!
More than 60 members of Kansas ADAPT
packed a meeting of the Kansas Board of Adult Care Home Administrators (BACHA)
on March 12th in
“We get thrown out of facilities
every day. We get the cops called on us,” said
ADAPT members pressed the board to
sign a memorandum in support of the group’s efforts to move people with
disabilities out of nursing homes and to punish uncooperative administrators.
Board members refused to sign the memorandum but agreed to form a task force to
explore the issues raised by ADAPT.
BACHA urged ADAPT to file complaints
against administrators, but ADAPT scoffed at that being the only solution,
claiming the investigations would take months. “That’s a long time when your
rights are being denied.”