ADAPT to Washington: "Stop De-funding Our FREEDOM!"

For Immediate release
For information contact:

April 26, 2011

Bruce Darling, 585-370-6690
Rahnee Patrick, 312-320-5111
http://www.adapt.org

ADAPT to Washington: "Stop De-funding Our FREEDOM!"

Washington, D.C.- Over 400 members of the national grassroots disability 
rights organization, ADAPT will converge on Washington, D.C. from all 
parts of the country April 30-May 5 to tell Congress and the Obama 
Administration to "Stop De-funding Our FREEDOM!"

"For people with disabilities and those who are aging, it feels like we 
are being drowned in a man-made tsunami of cuts to Medicaid services," 
said Bruce Darling, ADAPT organizer from Rochester, NY. "Between the 
draconian cuts we are experiencing in our home states, and the added 
threat of collateral damage from the budget wars here in Washington, we 
are not only at risk for losing our freedom to live in our own homes, but 
we are truly afraid for our lives."

The 1999 U.S. Supreme Court Olmstead decision, affirming Title II of the 
1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, mandates that people with 
disabilities of all ages should be served in the "most integrated 
setting," which almost always is their own home and community. Olmstead 
further states that isolating people unnecessarily in institutions is 
segregation, and therefore illegal.

Yet today, at least 38 states are proposing or have made cuts to Medicaid 
that threaten the civil rights of older and disabled Americans to live in 
their own homes and neighborhoods. These cuts are proposed in a variety of 
areas, from home-based attendant services, to medications, vision and 
dental services, to mental health services, and durable medical equipment 
like wheelchairs. All of these services and equipment are medically 
necessary for the health and safety and freedom of those with disabilities 
and who are aging.

"Our own home states are treating us like second class citizens, and it's 
no better here in Washington," said Mike Ervin, ADAPT organizer from 
Chicago. "For 20 years we've been telling everyone that removing the 
institutional bias from the Medicaid program, giving people who need some 
daily assistance the choice to stay in their own home to receive services, 
would save the government money along with being in compliance with the 
law. And yet, even with research to back us up, Congress has chosen not to 
make this simple change in the law and save both money and lives."

Medicaid currently mandates states to pay for nursing homes, but does not 
similarly mandate that states can pay for the same services in a person's 
own home. This is not a partisan issue. The Obama administration says it 
is open to any solutions that could help reduce the deficit, and 
Democratic congressional leaders like Sen. Tom Harkin (IA) and Rep. Danny 
Davis (IL) and Sen. Max Baucus (MT) have long supported home and 
community-based legislation. Republican Representative Dennis Rehberg (MT) 
has stated, "To control long-term care costs, Congress and the 
Administration should also examine ways to move Medicaid away from 
institutionalized care and toward home and community based care," and 
Republican Governor (WI), Scott Walker, recently wrote, that Medicaid is 
"...is biased toward caring for people in nursing homes rather than in 
their own homes and neighborhoods."

"We'll be in Washington this week DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM, and demanding 
that Congress stop de-funding our freedom," said Rahnee Patrick, ADAPT 
Organizer from Chicago. "Many of us live on $674/month, 75% of poverty 
level. Federal and state budgets should not be balanced on the backs of 
the poorest of the poor.

 # # #
FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/