I used to be one of those people who gawked at "handicapped" people. I felt lucky to not be afflicted by a disability. Little did I know that I was the one who was afflicted. I was guilty of being ignorant of the truths of being disabled, and ignorance itself is an affliction. Since then my experiences with disabled people has had a profound effect on my life.

One definition of "disability" is anything that disables or puts one at a disadvantage. By this definition, all of us are disabled in some way.

The truth of the matter is I am a person with many disabilities, and so are you. I wear glasses because my eyesight is growing worse. My hearing isn't what it used to be due to listening to loud rock-n-roll over the years. My sense of smell has grown dull due to my bad smoking habit. By definition, these are all disabilities.

Perception is everything. We treat people with physical disabilities like they're different. This perception helps us ignore the glaring disabilities that we all share. The worst disability that most of us share is that we look at someone with a physical disability as being "different". My question is, different from whom?

We're all similar yet different, and everyone has an individuality including a person with physical disabilities. As individuals, by living together with different abilities, opinions, needs and aspirations, we strengthen each other in our capabilities. We complement each other in our differences, no matter what they are.

On March 24, 2009 Representative Danny Davis (D-IL) [H.R. 1670] and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) [S. 683] reintroduced the Community Choice Act (CCA) in Congress. This bill would provide people with disabilities and seniors with the option of receiving home support services rather than having to go into nursing homes and institutions.

In the United States, it's your entitlement to live in a nursing home and have the costs paid for by Medicaid. It's not your right to choose to live at home. Because of this disparity, the disabled are more or less being incarcerated without ever committing a crime.

People with disabilities - both old and young - even those with severe mental and/or physical disabilities want services in the most integrated setting possible. Overwhelmingly, people prefer community services so they can stay in their own home.

During his campaign last year, President Obama promised the disability community that if elected, he would work for prompt passage of the CCA. Instead of working to accomplish prompt passage of the CCA, however, the Obama administration has indicated that it wants to address health care reform first.

This is not just another political issue that can be pushed aside. It is a matter of basic human rights and needs to be treated as such. Health care reform cannot be complete without addressing the institutional bias that currently exists.

Contact the White House [link opens in new window] and tell the President to free our people.

June 22, 2009 marked the tenth anniversary of the day that the United States Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C. that the unnecessary segregation of individuals with disabilities in institutions may constitute discrimination based on disability. The court ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires states to provide community-based services rather than institutional placements for individuals with disabilities.

In a 6-3 opinion the court said that "unjustified isolation of individuals with disabilities is properly regarded as discrimination based on disability." The Olmstead ruling provides an important clarification about how states should comply with Title II of the ADA. The Olmstead decision confirmed that states must ensure that Medicaid-eligible persons do not experience discrimination by being institutionalized when they could be served in a more integrated setting. This obligation is sometimes known as the ADA ‘integration mandate’.

The 'integration mandate' of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires public agencies to provide services "in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities."

The Supreme Court mandated that states must develop their plans for integrating institutionalized people into the community in collaboration with people with disabilities.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has failed to comply with this ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States. Pennsylvania still does not have a comprehensive plan ten years after the Olmstead decision was handed down. This failure to act has violated the rights of those disabled individuals who wish to leave segregated settings and to be included in their communities.

Pennsylvania needs to promptly develop and implement an Olmstead plan. Let your legislators know that Pennsylvania needs to show how, who, and when people will be moved out of institutions:

http://www.disabilityoptionsnetwork.org/stategovernment.php

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.

On 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 person’s 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.”

With the 2009 Pennsylvania Budget still up in the air, rumors are still flying that deep cuts to services and programs for the disabled are still a possibility. Although times are tough, cutting vital programs is fiscally and morally irresponsible.

Tell the Governor to fund people first.

Please call the Governor's office at (717) 787-2500 and give him the following message:

"I'm calling to ask the Governor to fund people first in the 2009 budget. Cutting home and community based services and/or Act 150 would be fiscally and morally irresponsible. Additionally, cutting Act 150 violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision giving people with disabilities the choice to live independently."

"The Governor needs to make sure that the 2009 Pennsylvania budget funds people first. Any approved budget needs to at least maintain current funding for disabled programs."

Disability Options Network strongly supports inclusion of the Community Choice Act in any plan for health care reform, and are greatly disappointed by the lack of leadership from the Obama administration on this issue.  Ending the institutional bias in the systems that provide Long Term Services and Supports is certainly change that we can all believe in.

Antiquated federal policy requires states to pay for institutional placement, but leaves community based services as optional.  Even though seniors and people with disabilities would prefer to live in the community with services and supports, they are often forced into institutional placement because states have chosen not to offer a community-based alternative that meets their needs or have cut these programs.

Simply put, the Community Choice Act gives persons who would be eligible for institutional placement the choice to receive assistance in the community.  It creates a "floor" for the provision of long term services and supports, so that there is at least a base level of service available throughout the country.

This issue affects virtually every family in America.  Many are supporting a senior who wants to remain in their own home.  Others have an adult family member with a disability who is seeking to be independent, and some are caring for a child with a disability.  All are struggling with a system that fails to provide the supports they need.

Contact our leaders in Washington to include the Community Choice Act in health care reform.  It's time to pass the Community Choice Act (S 683/ HR 1670).  This is the change we need.

The 30 Pennsylvania Republican Senators listed below continue to use the disabled community as political pawns. These Pennsylvania Senators are hard set on making deep cuts to key programs that would force more disabled people out of their homes and into nursing homes.

Western PA ADAPT accuses these Senators of crimes against the disabled community. Cutting vital human service programs is fiscally and morally irresponsible. The plain truth of the matter is that receiving these services is a matter of life and death to some disabled Pennsylvanians.

Go to the Web sites of these Pennsylvania Senators and visit, write, call or E-mail them. Let them know that you want them to make sure that any approved state budget must FUND PEOPLE FIRST.

Richard Alloway - http://senatoralloway.com
David Argall - http://senatorargall.com
Lisa Baker - http://www.senatorbaker.com
Patrick Browne - http://www.senatorbrowne.com
Mike Brubaker - http://senatorbrubaker.com
Jake Corman - http://www.jakecorman.com
Jane Earll* - http://www.senatorearll.com
John Eichelberger - http://senatoreichelberger.com
Edwin Erickson - http://www.senatorerickson.com
Mike Folmer - http://www.senatorfolmer.com
John Gordner - http://www.senatorgordner.com
Stewart Greenleaf - http://www.senatorgreenleaf.com
Charles McIlhinney - http://www.senatormcilhinney.com
Jane Clare Orie* - http://www.senatororie.com
Jeffrey Piccola - http://www.piccola.org
Dominic Pileggi - http://www.senatorpileggi.com
John Pippy - http://www.senatorpippy.com
John Rafferty - http://www.senatorrafferty.com
Robert Robbins* - http://www.senatorrobbins.com
Joseph Scarnati* - http://www.senatorscarnati.com
Lloyd Smucker - http://senatorsmucker.com
Robert Tomlinson - http://www.senatortomlinson.com
Patricia Vance - http://www.senatorvance.com
Elder Vogel* - http://senatoreldervogel.com
Kim Ward - http://senatorward.com
Michael Waugh - http://www.senatorwaugh.com
Donald White* - http://www.senatordonwhite.com
Mary Jo White* - http://www.senatormjwhite.com
Robert Wonderling (Resigned on August 1 to run the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce)
Gene Yaw - http://senatorgeneyaw.com

(Senators marked with an * above represent districts in western Pennsylvania covered by Western PA ADAPT, ADAPT of Erie, PA, and Southwestern PA ADAPT.)

Western PA ADAPT is the local chapter of a National Grassroots Disability Rights organization. ADAPT fights so people with disabilities can live in the community with real supports instead of being locked away in nursing homes and other institutions.

Visit the Western PA ADAPT Web site:
http://www.doninc.org/adapt/

Fifteen plus people with disabilities, many using wheelchairs and other mobility aids, from ADAPT Chapters in Western Pennsylvania gathered at State Senator Elder Vogel's New Castle, PA office on August 14, 2009 to demand that any approved state budget must FUND PEOPLE FIRST.

The ADAPT members demanded that any approved budget needs to at least maintain current funding for vital human service programs.

The Pennsylvania State Government continues to use the disabled community as a political pawn. Although times are tough, cutting vital human service programs as is fiscally and morally irresponsible. The plain truth of the matter is that receiving these services is a matter of life and death to some disabled Pennsylvanians.

After blocking Senator Vogel's office for about an hour and protesting outside on the street, an August 19th meeting was scheduled with him to discuss budget issues.

How do you spell power? ADAPT!

Note: More local ADAPT actions will be commenced in the coming weeks.

Visit the Western PA ADAPT Web site.

Lost until recently in the current debate about health care reform was the disabled community's movement to include the Community Choice Act (CCA) in health care reform.

The Community Choice Act would provide people with disabilities and seniors with the option of receiving home support services rather than having to go into nursing homes and institutions. On March 24, 2009 Representative Danny Davis and Senator Tom Harkin introduced the CCA bills in Congress.

President Obama wants to "make health care more affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices and keeping insurance companies honest." It is a fact that home and community-based services cost about 1/3 of what it costs to keep someone in a nursing home for a year and provides "choice" for our most vulnerable citizens.

Western PA ADAPT activists have been fighting for CCA in the last few months, undertaking numerous actions to let our legislatures know that any health care reform package is incomplete if it does not include elements of CCA.

On Friday, September 18, 2009, New York Senator Schumer introduced the Community First Choice amendment to the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform. If enacted, the Community First Choice Option would be an optional program that gives states an enhanced federal Medicaid match for providing attendant services and supports as an alternative to placement in a nursing facility or other institution.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, the Community First Choice Option was incorporated into the Senate Finance Committee bill. This is the closest we've ever been to getting the language of the Community Choice Act into federal law.

Please contact your Senators and let them know that you support the Community First Choice Option and that it is critical they keep it in the final version they approve. You can call using this toll-free number: 866-324-0787. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request.

REPRESENTATIVE GLENN THOMPSON SIGNS ON

PA ADAPT attended a meeting with US Representative Glenn Thompson at his DC office in early September to ask him to sign on to the Community Choice Act (CCA). The Community Choice Act would provide people with disabilities and seniors with the option of receiving home support services rather than having to go into nursing homes and institutions. Representative Thompson was one of two Pennsylvania Legislators who had not signed onto the bill (HR 1670).

Representative Thompson promised to read the bill, and said he believes that all 50 states should have a mandate to provide community care instead of institutionalized care.

Representative Thompson has joined 116 other Representatives as a cosponsor of CCA on Wednesday, October 21, 2009. Please call his DC office at (202) 225-5121 and thank him for supporting real choice for people with disabilities to live in their own homes.

A CRITICAL MOMENT IN HEALTH CARE REFORM

With chances of the CCA successfully being passed being slim, ADAPT has been working to have the Community First Choice (CFC) Option included in health reform legislation. The CFC Option would get the key provisions of the CCA into health reform. The option would encourage states to provide Medicaid home and community based attendant services (rather than require them as the original CCA would do).

On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, the CFC Option was incorporated into the Senate Finance Committee bill.

Senators are meeting NOW to merge the Finance and HELP Committee health reform bills. They will be making decisions on whether to keep the CFC Option in the combined bill. The merged bill may go to the Senate floor to be debated as early as next week.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW! THIS IS URGENT!

Contact both of your Senators' offices today and ask for their support. You may call toll-free (thanks to Families USA): 1-800-828-0498 or use the Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121.