For more information: 					      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[ADVOCATE #1]  	xxx-xxx-xxxx (cell)	
[ADVOCATE #2]	xxx-xxx-xxxx (cell)

[DATE] [CITY, STATE] -- [Name of organization] today called on [REPRESENTATIVE OR SENATOR] to preserve critical components of the Affordable Care Act which secures the rights of people with disabilities to live in the community and provide vital healthcare services.  [Description of Action including the name of the targeted Representative or Senator].
[Quote from Activist/Advocate in organization] 
Congressional Republicans are moving legislation that eliminates the Community First Choice Option (CFCO) by 2020 as part of a strategy to cut Medicaid funding for disabled individuals. CFCO, which was introduced as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is the only current Medicaid program aimed at ensuring disabled people’s right to live in the community. By providing enhanced Federal funds to states that have adopted the program, CFCO gives Medicaid beneficiaries greater access to home- and community-based services, enabling them to live in their communities rather than in expensive nursing facilities or institutional settings that rob them of their civil rights and fundamental liberties. CFCO saves states millions of taxpayer dollars and grant disabled citizens the freedom to decide where they want to live. 
In the states that have implemented it, CFCO has become a vital tool in moving disabled people out of nursing facilities and other institutions and into their own homes. Members of the Disability Community have expressed concerns that GOP is using CFCO and block grants to play partisan politics without consideration for the many people with disabilities whose lives are hanging in the balance.  
[Quote from Activist/Advocate in organization]
The concern is that in capping or block granting Medicaid congressional Republicans are setting limits on how many disabled people can transition from institutions into the community, and eliminating CFCO restores the Medicaid bias toward institutionalization that the Disability Community has long fought to reverse. 
The right to live in the community was first recognized in Federal law in the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead v. LC case. The years since have seen the growth of centers for independent living as Disability Rights organizations have made community integration one of their primary concerns.