Administration dragging its feet on community choice in health care reform

[KamaAina]

http://capwiz.com/rochestercdr/issues/alert/?alertid=13699476

When the President began an initiative to reform healthcare, it seemed obvious that this was the opportunity for addressing the institutional bias. Advocates urged the administration to publicly express their support for including the Community Choice Act (S683/HR1670) in healthcare reform. In multiple meetings, the administration repeatedly stated that Congress was determining what would be in the healthcare reform package. The administration would not ask Congress long term services and supports in healthcare reform.

On July 6th, the Obama administration issued a statement supporting the inclusion of the CLASS Act in the healthcare reform bill known as the Affordable Health Choices Act. This provides for a payroll deduction for people to buy long term care insurance from the government. Unfortunately, people who are low-income and unemployed, who also need long term services and supports, have been left out of that legislation.

While the goals of this legislation are laudable, the CLASS Act does not address the institutional bias which forces Americans with disabilities and older Americans into nursing facilities and other institutions. It does not address the needs of seniors and people with disabilities who are not working and will need long term services and supports.

The Community Choice Act (CCA) would address the issues facing low-income people with disabilities and seniors, who are often forced into nursing facilities for lack of in-home services, reversing the unjust institutional bias in our long term care system.

[Odin2005]

1. We get these kind of sevices here in MN. I was shocked when I learned that other places didn't

[Traveling_Home]

2. Obama continues Institutional bias against freedom and dignity

For Immediate release:
July 7, 2009

For Information contact:
Bob Kafka 512-431-4085
Marsha Katz 406-544-9504

Obama Administration Continues Institutional Bias in Healthcare Reform

Washington, D.C.--- The nation's largest grassroots disability rights
organization, ADAPT, expressed outrage today at the Obama administration's
selective endorsement of one piece of proposed long term care legislation
while refusing to support a companion measure aimed at eliminating the
institutional bias in Medicaid for aging or disabled lower income people
that Obama, with strong support from over 80 national disability and aging
organizations, co-sponsored as a Senator.

July 6, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, sent a
letter to Sen. Edward Kennedy, Chair of the Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee, expressing President Obama's support for
Kennedy's "CLASS Act," which would allow middle class Americans to set
aside money from their paychecks in anticipation of the expenses they will
likely face for long-term services and supports as they age, or acquire a
disability. After paying into the fund for at least 5 years, workers or
their non-working spouses could draw on the fund for long-term services
and assistance, either in a nursing home or in the community. Workers who
wish could opt out of the program, an outcome more likely in tough
economic times or in cases where low worker-wages barely cover individual
or family survival expenses.

"Those of us with disabilities, who are aging, and who aren't able to
work are outraged that the President has issued public support for this
primarily middle class legislation, and has completely ignored the
companion legislation that would include lower income disabled and older
people in reform of long term services and supports, and health care
reform," said Bob Kafka, Texas ADAPT Organizer. "It's like we don't
exist!"

ADAPT and a multitude of other national disability and aging organizations
in Washington have gone on record in support of Sen. Kennedy's CLASS Act
only if it is paired with a "fix" for Medicaid addressing lower income
and non-working people, similar to provisions contained in the Community
Choice Act (CCA). CCA inserts the concept of "personal choice" into the
law, adding language that mandates states to pay for help in a personbs
own home the same way the law mandates them to pay for nursing homes.
Current law can force people with disabilities and who are aging into
nursing homes in order to receive services that can just as easily be
delivered in the community. Research has demonstrated that community-based
assistance is almost always less expensive.

"When President Obama was a senator, he co-sponsored CCA," said Dawn
Russell, ADAPT Organizer from Denver Colorado, "and when he campaigned
for the Presidency, he pledged to support CCA. But since he was elected,
and we met with his people at the White House, they told us that he will
not include long term services and supports in health care reform. When we
heard that, we expressed our disappointment and anger in a peaceful
protest outside the White House. The President responded by having us
arrested, and there were very heavy fines levied against us. It feels like
the President is trying to intimidate and silence us so we won't speak up
for people with disabilities, people with low incomes, and those who are
aging who are at risk of being forced into nursing homes under the current
law."

Because the CLASS Act does not address the Medicaid "institutional
bias," people who use up the benefits they save under the act will still
face having to move to nursing homes to keep getting assistance, unless
they can afford to stay in their own homes because of other resources they
have.

"When I voted last November, I was sure I was voting for a great man who
would bring freedom to people with disabilities," said Bruce Darling,
ADAPT Organizer from New York. "Just as President Lincoln freed the
slaves, I felt that President Obama would free those of us with
disabilities from the continued threat of incarceration in a nursing homes
and institutions. Now, I feel like a fool, because this administration
apparently cares nothing for us and has no respect for our freedom and our
civil rights."

[KamaAina]

3. ADAPT actions in DC and 25 other cities

for those of you just joining us, ADAPT is a radical disability rights group that initially formed around the issue of accessible public transportation. With that battle largely won, their focus has shifted to "Free Our People" from nursing homes and similar long-term care institutions.

Follow the action here:

http://www.adapt.org/twitter.php

edit: caps; also note they're calling out the Dem party for not following through on its promise to support the Community Choice Act (H.R. 1670).