03/08/18 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information:
Kate Blaker: (724) 579-0578
Stephanie Woodward: (585) 269-9184
Dawn Russell: (303) 884-1471
ADAPT Praises House Candidate Conor Lamb for His Commitment to the Disability Integration Act!
March 8, 2018 – ADAPT applauds Pennsylvania’s 18th District candidate Conor Lamb for committing to support the Disability Integration Act (H.R. 2472/S.910).
The Disability Integration Act is bipartisan legislation which requires Medicaid and other insurers who would pay for nursing facility or other institutional placement to ensure that disabled people have the option to receive long term services and supports in the community. The bill spells out in Federal statute that disabled citizens have the same right to Life and Liberty that other Americans enjoy – the right to choose how and where we will live and work, raise our families and direct our affairs.
On March 5, 2018 an ADAPT member emailed Lamb’s campaign to ask about the candidate’s position on the Disability Integration Act. In less than five hours, one of Lamb’s staffers responded that “Conor is a strong support of the Disability Integration Act, and will absolutely support its passage in Congress.”
“We are thrilled with Conor Lamb’s support for DIA,” said Kate Blaker of Washington, Pennsylvania. “Elderly and disabled Americans should have no less right to live their lives in freedom, but every day people are forced to go to nursing facilities because they do not have the supports they need in their own homes.”
Although many Americans take such rights for granted, older and Disabled Americans know that they may be forced out of their home and into an institution by a state’s Medicaid program or insurance company. “As imperfect as the justice system is, an elderly woman who becomes disabled has less due process protections than someone accused of murder,” said Brenda Dare of Washington County, “That’s appalling.”
Lamb is the only candidate in this district to commit to supporting the Disability Integration Act. The impact of this bill would be far-reaching, improving the lives of most American families who struggle to find a way to keep aging parents and grandparents at home instead of having to make the heart wrenching decision to place their family members in a nursing facility. “The Disability Integration Act provides the much-needed solution that middle-class Americans have been searching for to keep their families together,” said Stephanie Woodward, a National ADAPT Organizer. “If people in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District are concerned about how they can keep a disabled or elderly family member independent, the choice in this race is clear.”
National ADAPT Organizer Dawn Russell added, “It’s time for us to mobilize people to vote in the upcoming election because a vote for Conor Lamb is a vote for our freedom.”
ADAPT thanks Conor Lamb for his commitment to help disabled and aging Americans, as well as providing relief to American families, by supporting the Disability Integration Act.
ADAPT has worked for decades to secure and advance the civil rights guaranteed to disabled Americans under the ADA and will continue to fight against these injustices. Information about ADAPT’s history, currently prioritized issues, and its activities can be found at www.adapt.org, the NationalADAPT Facebook page and on the @NationalADAPT Twitter under the hashtag #ADAPTandRESIST.
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