Rally to Protect Healthcare.

(Memphis, June 28, 2017) Mid-South ADAPT and The Memphis Center for Independent Living, along with Copper Coalition, CBTU, Indivisible Memphis, and other groups held a resist rally and press conference on Wednesday morning at 10:AM near Madison Avenue and McLean.  Mid-South ADAPT came to voice our concerns to Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker about proposed cuts to Medicaid in the (BCRA) that will negatively impact long term supports and services that make it possible for people with disabilities in Tennessee to live in the community.

The Senators said they wished to repeal Obamacare, but they have created legislation to cut Medicaid instead. The large cuts in federal funding for Tennessee’s Medicaid program, known as TennCare, would put health coverage at risk for many Tennesseans. The cut in federal funding hurts Tennessee more than other US states. Because Tennessee did not expand Medicaid under the ACA, there is less federal funding and that funding will be capped.

TennCare enables low-income seniors, children, and people with disabilities to get needed health care, work and live in the community. It helps parents and other adults stay healthy, keep employment, and avoid medical debt. 

Tennessee is one of 44 states participating in Medicaid’s Money Follows the Person program, which helps TennCare beneficiaries safely and successfully transition from expensive nursing facilities to their own homes. Tennessee’s program has helped more than 600 people transition to the community, and has produced significant state savings by reducing unnecessary expensive nursing home stays in the state. 

Cuts to Medicaid also will not reduce the tax burden on Tennesseans. While other states have built an insurance market for low-income working adults, Tennessee state, county and local taxpayers will have to shoulder the cost of uncompensated care. Healthcare is the best investment in the US worker.

The message of the rally is clear: Get involved.  Do not give in because our lives and liberty depend on it. If you would like more information on how you can join the resistance and Save Our Medicaid contact Allison Donald and Tim Wheat of Mid-South ADAPT 901-726-6404 or www.midsouthadapt.org   “Healthcare is a Human Right!” 

#SaveOurMedicaid
#ADAPTandResist

ADAPT Die-in at McConnell's Office

6/22/17
PRESS ALERT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHO: ADAPT
WHAT: ADAPT is staging a Die-in at Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s office
WHERE: 317 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
WHEN: Thursday, June 22, 2017

Disability Advocates Protest Senate Leader Over Cuts to Medicaid for Millions of Elderly and Disabled Americans

(June 22, 2017, Washington D.C.) Today, about 60 members of the national disability rights organization ADAPT are staging a Die-in at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office. Advocates are protesting McConnell’s Senate healthcare bill, demanding he bring an end to attacks on disabled people’s freedom which are expected in the bill.

“The American Health Care Act caps and significantly cuts Medicaid which will greatly reduce access to medical care and home and community based services for elderly and disabled Americans who will either die or be forced into institutions,” said Bruce Darling, an ADAPT organizer taking part in the protest. “Our lives and liberty shouldn’t be stolen to give a tax break to the wealthy. That’s truly un-American.”

“Not only will AHCA take away our freedom,” said Dawn Russell, an ADAPT organizer from Colorado. “That lost freedom will also cost Americans much more money. The nursing facilities that people will be forced into are much more expensive than community-based services that AHCA would cut.”

In 2012, the National Council on Disability (an independent federal agency that makes policy recommendations to the President, Congress and federal agencies) reported that States spent upwards of $300,000 more per person serving disabled people in institutions each year than they would spend providing equivalent services in the community.

The protest falls on the 18th anniversary of Olmstead v. LC the 1999 Supreme Court Ruling which first recognized disabled people’s right to live in the community. ADAPT organizer Nancy Salandra of Pennsylvania was quick to note the connection between that case and the AHCA.

“We fought so hard to have our right live in the community recognized and here we are 18 years later and we are still fighting for our freedom from incarceration.”

As they dramatize the deaths AHCA’s cuts and forced institutionalization will cause, and as Capitol Police close in, the advocates who came to McConnell’s office from across the country chanted “I’d rather go to jail than die without Medicaid!”

“To say people will die under this law is not an exaggeration,” said Mike Oxford, an ADAPT organizer from Kansas. “Home and community based services are what allow us to do our jobs, live our lives and raise our families. Without these services many disabled and elderly Americans will die. We won’t let that happen.”

On the 15th anniversary of the death of Justin Dart, the father of the ADA, his words ring true “get into politics as if your life depends upon it, cause it does.” ADAPT’s history, the issues we are fighting for and our activities can be followed on our web site at www.adapt.org, our ADAPT Facebook page and on Twitter – look for #ADAPTandRESIST