For Immediate Release
September 19, 2011

Contact:

Janine Bertram (503) 622-6387
Bruce Darling (585) 370-6690
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504

http://www.adapt.org

HUNDREDS OF DISABILITY MEDICAID ACTIVISTS STORM OFFICES OF HOUSEREPUBLICANS HENSARLING AND CAMP

Washington, DC — Building on a protest earlier today at the White House in response to the President’s debt plan, the national disability rights group ADAPT is now at the Cannon House Office Building at Independence and 1st Avenues demanding that Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Michigan), two of the House Republican Super Committee members work with them, to ensure that Medicaid dollars are invested in cost-saving community supports.

“I am personally offended that Congressional Republicans, especially one from my state, think deficit reduction should only come from spending cuts to critical programs, including Medicaid,” said Michelle Dooley of Forth Worth, Texas, near the district of Super Committee Co-Chair Hensarling. “My 26 year old son uses home services funded by Medicaid. Without these services, he would have to go back to the state institution, where his behavioral issues dramatically escalate. Millionaires and billionaires don’t face the same threat my son and I do. They should pay their fair share to get our fiscal house in order andreduce the deficit.”

“Community-based Medicaid services give us independence, health care, help our families stay together, and provide jobs,” said Randy Alexander of Memphis ADAPT. “States have already made significant cuts to Medicaid. How many more people with disabilities and seniors must lose our basic freedoms and lives in order to have done our share?”

Bruce Darling, an ADAPT organizer from Rochester, New York, pointed out that states have already reduced or eliminated vital home care services and forced seniors and people with disabilities into nursing facilities against their will. “People are already experiencing reduced or eliminated access to basic health care, including medications. Jobs have already been eliminated for home care and direct care workers.”

ADAPT is demanding that Hensarling, Camp and the other Republicans on the Super Committee agree to support the “millionaire’s tax” assure that funding for Medicaid is not capped and increases proportionate to need; eliminate Medicaid’s institutional bias as a part of the plan to address the deficit; and provide ADAPT with an opportunity to testify before the entire Super Committee regarding ADAPT’s proposals for real Medicaid reform and eliminating the institutional bias in the plan to address the deficit.

Details of ADAPT’s REAL Medicaid Reform proposals can be found on the ADAPT website at http://www.adapt.org

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ADAPT’S DEMANDS of the Republican House Members on the Super Committee

September 19, 2011

Congressional Republicans, including those on the Super Committee,believe the burden of deficit reduction should only come from spending cuts to critical programs, including Medicaid. They refuse to ask millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair shareto get our fiscal house in order and reduce the deficit.”

A fundamental question needs to be answered: What is fair in such shared sacrifice?

• * Is a Medicaid home care recipient losing assistance with getting in and out of bed and toileting the same as a hedge fund manager not being able to buy yet another Ferrari?
• * Is a family who is forced to give up their disabled child because Medicaid will no longer provide them with the supports they need the same as a family who will now need to think twice about buying a luxury estate?
• * Is an elderly woman losing her home and family and being forced into a nursing facility because she can no longer receive Medicaid attendant services the same as an oil company not being able to write off the cost of a private jet.
• * Is an attendant who just manages to make ends meet losing the income that allows her to care for her family the same as a bank executive paying more taxes on a multi-million dollar bonus?

ADAPT demands that the Congressional House Republicans on theSuper Committee
agree to:

include a millionaire’s tax in the deficit reduction plan to assure that Medicaid beneficiaries do not bear the burden of efforts to addressthe deficit;

• maintain the integrity of the Medicaid program by assuring thatthe funding for Medicaid is not capped and increases proportionate to need;
• eliminate Medicaid’s institutional bias as a part of the plan to address the deficit; and
• provide ADAPT with an opportunity to testify before the entire Super Committee regarding ADAPT’s proposals for real Medicaid reform an deliminating the institutional bias in the plan to address the deficit.

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