9/25/17 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – ONGOING ACTION
For More Information:
Bruce Darling (585) 370-6690
Gregg Beratan (610) 247-4188
Marilee Adamski-Smith (715) 204-4152
WHO: National ADAPT
WHAT: National ADAPT Protests at the Senate Finance Hearing on Graham-Cassidy
WHERE: Dirksen Building, Room 215, Washington, DC
WHEN: Monday, September 25, 2017, 2pm EDT
Disabled Advocates Are Protesting in the Senate Finance Hearing Room to demand that the Senate vote against the Graham-Cassidy amendment to repeal the Affordable Care Act and decimate Medicaid
9/25/17, Washington, D.C. – Two hundred advocates from National ADAPT are at the Senate Finance Hearing protesting against cuts to Medicaid in the Graham-Cassidy Amendment and the elimination of critical protections afforded persons with disabilities in the Affordable Care Act. The Amendment, which is the latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, includes block granting Medicaid funding to the states, which will result in devastating cuts to Medicaid. When their backs are up against a financial wall, many states have threatened a return to the days of warehousing people with disabilities.
“Graham-Cassidy is the worst bill yet that Republicans have come up with to repeal Obamacare. This wasn’t what they campaigned on; they didn’t campaign to strip away the services that disabled people and seniors rely on to live in the community,” said Bruce Darling, an organizer with ADAPT. “They campaigned on fixing Obamacare and I don’t understand why they continue to target our community with cuts that will steal disabled lives instead of actually fixing anything.”
ADAPT has worked for decades to expand the availability of home and community based services as the first option for disabled people, rather than institutionalization. Despite years of effort, Medicaid home and community based services remain optional for states, while institutionalization is a mandatory Medicaid service in every state. Cuts to Medicaid funding will fall first and hardest on community based services, forcing disabled people into institutions which will be underfunded hives of abuse, neglect, and human misery.
“The cuts to Medicaid funding are cruel and un-American,” said Dawn Russell, organizer from Denver Colorado. “Forcing disabled people and seniors into institutions just to pay for tax cuts, which is what this bill does, is not equality. It’s not liberty. Graham-Cassidy is a policy for a much crueler and meaner country than this one, and the people who support it should be ashamed of themselves.”
ADAPT’s history, the issues it is fighting for, and its activities can be found at www.adapt.org, the NationalADAPT Facebook page and on Twitter under the hashtag #ADAPTandRESIST.
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