For Immediate Release:
April 28, 2009
For Information Contact:
Bruce Darling 585-370-6690
Marsha Katz 406-544-9504
http://www.adapt.org
99 Arrested as ADAPT Blocks Independence and Constitution Avenues on the Hill, then Crawls Up the Capitol Steps
Washington, D.C. --- ADAPT, the nation's largest cross-disability, grassroots disability rights organization, took the fight to include long-term services in Health Care Reform up to Capitol Hill today. On Monday, Obama administration officials made it clear that the administration was not going to provide leadership on getting long-term services included in health care reform, saying it was up to Congress.
"I guess what happened at the White House kind of got us wondering who is leading the country, the President or Congress," said Bob Kafka, ADAPT Organizer from Austin, Texas. "Sad to say but President Obama gets a D on disability rights after his first hundred days. Throughout his campaign and currently on his website he promises to support independent, community-based living for Americans with disabilities by enforcing the Community Choice Act, which would allow Americans with significant disabilities the choice of living in their community rather than having to live in a nursing home or other institution. Many of us who voted for him feel angry and betrayed that he isn't keeping his promise."
The Community Choice Act (CCA) (S. 683, HB1670), introduced in March 2009 by Sen. Tom Harkin (IA) and Rep. Danny Davis (IL), would remove what is known as the 'institutional bias' in Medicaid. Currently, Medicaid pays for older and disabled people to go to nursing homes and institutions, but won't pay for the same assistance, generally at a lower cost, in a person's own home. Many states have limited or no home and community based services with lists that keep people waiting for years in institutions and nursing homes before they have any hope of getting services. Some wait so long they die before their name reaches the top of the list.
"It's no surprise we decided to have a presence on Capitol Hill today," said Mark Johnson, ADAPT Organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. "We blocked streets to make it visibly clear that we aren't going away and we won't go away until CCA passes or is included in Health Care Reform. Research has shown that people who live in the community are healthier and have fewer secondary conditions. It's fiscally irresponsible to increase health care costs by not insuring that people have the choice to receive services and supports in their own homes. And it's bad policy to put all the dollars only into front-end health care, once again denying people with disabilities their civil rights and forcing them to continually be the last people served."
After police arrested 99 people from both the House and Senate sides of the Capitol, the remaining 400 ADAPT members went to the Capitol, many spilling out of their wheelchairs and crawling up the Capitol steps to hold an impromptu CCA rally, reminiscent of the famous stair crawl on the day the ADA was passed in 1990.
ADAPT winds up its week in Washington on Wednesday by holding a joint rally with SEIU, the fastest growing, largest home care union in the country, with a membership of over 420,000. Sen. Harkin will speak at the rally, as will an ADAPT member and his SEIU attendant. People with disabilities and seniors want workers who are paid a living wage, who have health care benefits, and time off. Supporting a fairly compensated workforce reduces turnover, increases reliability and insures a better trained attendant workforce for those who need assistance in their daily lives.
"After the rally, we will go in teams to visit every member of Congress, asking them to co-sponsor CCA and include long-term services in Health care reform," said Barb Toomer, ADAPT Organizer from Salt Lake City, Utah. "There will be well over 1000 people visiting Congress on Wednesday from a number of different disability and provider groups, all with the same message: pass CCA and include long-term services."
From the JFA Moderator: The Wednesday march and rally were a powerful testament that we, as a community, will not rest until there is Justice for All in this country. Through cold and rain, the ADAPTers, along with staff from NCIL and AAPD and members of SEIU, persisted in our march toward liberty. Crowds gathered along the streets to join in the song and spirit, and the calls to "Free our Brothers, Free our Sisters, Free Our People Now!" echoed down Independence Avenue.
In Upper Senate Park, Senator Harkin applauded ADAPT's civil disobedience and declared his solidarity. He promised that if CCA is not included in this year's health care reforms, he would engage in some congressional disobedience. In response, Bob Kafka offered him a set of chains should they be necessary.
The rally then took to the halls of congress. ADAPT and SEIU meet with countless legislative staff to get the message out that Long Term Services and Supports MUST be included in health care reform.
Pictures to come!
Kudos, to all involved with the demonstrations, however, aside from the crowds that gathered to watch and several senators applauded, much of the world was NOT WATCHING and probably could have cared less. With the exception of Jake Tapper, of ABC-TV news, the rest of the media, like President Obama, fails miserably. This means no "Change" for the disability community. Be careful what and who you hope for.
Posted by: Patricia Sprofera | May 05, 2009 at 06:20 PM
Firstly, as an activist organization in FLORIDA, where we have many quadriplegics involuntarily incarcerated in nursing homes, why do we have to hear about this demonstration on the nation news?
Secondly, why did the national news chose to only run this demonstration ONCE? Other events are re-run so that people might see the news on a rerun.
Thirdly, I did not see the news on the demonstration. I was told about it by a business man, without a disability, who just supports our activism in Miami.
Fourthly, we live in an era of the internet. My impression is that the e-mail use by ADAPT insufficient. We can all be bound together with the e-mail and e-mail alerts. Frankly, the impression we get in Florida is that ADAPT wants to take on the Legislature and the President theirselves. It might work, but in the 1970's Florida organizations banded together and then we took on the Florida Legislature and passed 13 bills in 58 days. (1974). I was there as the lead lobbyist and President of the Florida Council of Handicapped Organizations.
ADAPT, alone, may be able to make the changes necessary in Washington. It is risky and doubtful. For instance, how do you work with our Florida delegation? I know most of these people personally.
They must wonder where the Florida advocates are and why they are not included in the efforts in Washington.
My e-mail address is dignity4@comcast.net and I do not see ADAPT banging on my door.
When we reached out to national organizations to help build a national press release list there was no help.
The few press release e-mail addresses we did put together did not respond to a statue unvieling in the State Capitol of two life size officers down and a minature of the statue for the Blind with two plaques, one in raised letters and one in blind so that all the blind could feel the statue and read the information on the statue. Statues have been built for over 2,000 years, and have never included the blind. We did it in Florida and the media kept it a secret.
In too many years as a advocate for people with disabilies I have concluded that WE are our worst problem. We do not work together. People with disabilities, on initial encounters, want to look the other way. We collectively, with good cohesion could conquer any issue.
Denny R. Wood, President
Florida Paraplegic Association, Inc.
Posted by: Denny R. Wood | May 07, 2009 at 10:33 AM
They saw the Denny "R" and thought it stood for "Republican". I've found that JFA and the like don't support if there's an "R" smell.
Posted by: Ric | May 11, 2009 at 02:01 PM