ACTION IN DC
ADAPT Lobbies on Capitol Hill
By
Norman Smith
American
Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) activists from across America
descended on Washington, D.C., for a week in September to deliver the message
Americans with disabilities will accept “No more excuses,” a campaign that
echoes a phrase often quoted by Mark Mc- Clellan, the director of the federal
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
The
purpose of ADAPT’s action was to tackle barriers that force people into
nursing homes and other institutions or that prevent people with disabilities
and older Americans from staying in their own homes in the community with the
services and supports they need. Those barriers include the lack of appropriate
housing, the lack of personal assistance programs and the movement to integrate
long-term care services and supports into state acute health care managed care
plans.
”As
we move out of nursing homes and other institutions, we need affordable,
accessible integrated housing to move into,” said Cassie James, Philadelphia
ADAPT organizer. “An obvious place to start is with the nation’s Public
Housing Authorities (PHAs). The PHAs have the ability to designate Section 8
housing vouchers specifically for use by people leaving nursing homes and
institutions who are receiving home and community- based services. We need to
make sure the PHAs do just that. No more excuses” ADAPT concluded their week
in Washington with visits to legislators that resulted in at least one new House
co-sponsor for Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA),
the Community Choice Act (H.R. 910, S 401). The staff of Rep. Bobby Rush (DIll.)
called MiCASSA House sponsor, Rep. Danny Davis’s (D Ill.) office to sign on to
the bill.
There
were other significant highlights of the week.
Joe
Shapiro’s National Public Radio coverage of the ADAPT action included an
interview with McClellan, who credited his work with ADAPT as the reason for
Money Follows the Person (MFP).
ADAPT
targeted the trade associations for the nation’s Public Housing Authorities (PHAs),
getting meetings with both the PHA’s Directors Association and the Council of
Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA.). ADAPT said that they put the PHAs on
notice that they share responsibility with Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
for assuring people with disabilities have proper housing.
They
took on the Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) that currently oversee acute
health services in many states, which are beginning to take on long-term
services as well. ADAPT will be meeting with the CEO of America’s Health
Insurance Plans, an MCO trade association, to get a commitment that AHIP members
won’t contract with states to ration long term services and supports in order
to balance their budgets.
Support
was garnered for MiCASSA from the civil rights oriented National Catholic
Partnership on Disability (NCPD). After meeting with ADAPT, NCPD sent a letter
supporting passage of MiCASSA to the co-sponsors in both the House and Senate.
ADAPT
got a commitment from Kim Kendrick, HUD’s assistant secretary for Fair Housing
and Equal Opportunity, to make sure her boss, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson,
keeps his promise to contact the PHAs about designating Section 8 vouchers for
Medicaid- eligible people with disabilities who are coming out of shelters,
nursing homes and other institutions. ADAPT conducted their first youth summit,
prior to the ADAPT action and put emphasis on this area throughout the week.
Furthermore, there were many notable young advocates that attended the action.
A
fax was sent by ADAPT, thanking Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman
for passing MFP, while also occupying the GOP offices to get a meeting with him.
ADAPT wants Republican support for two additional measures that will assist
states to successfully implementing MFP, namely Access Across America, the
housing initiative that will assure people with disabilities have adequate
housing as they leave nursing homes, shelters and other institutions and MiCASSA,
which would remove the institutional bias from Medicaid.