PRESS ALERT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information:
NAME – XXX-XXX-XXXX
NAME – XXX-XXX-XXXX
WHO: ADAPT/GROUP NAME
WHAT: Sit-in at Senator XXXXX office
WHERE:
WHEN:
Disability Advocates Demand Senator XXXXXX Oppose Cuts to Medicaid for Millions of Elderly and Disabled Americans
DATE, CITY: Today, about XX members of the [group name or “Disability Community] are staging a sit-in at Senator XXXXX office. Advocates are protesting the Senate healthcare bill, demanding that the Senator oppose the attacks on disabled people’s freedom which are in the bill. [INSERT QUOTE FROM LOCAL PERSON ABOUT HOW THE PROPOSED CAPS AND CUTS WILL REDUCE ACCESS TO MEDICAL CARE AND HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES. MENTION LIBERTY.]
[INSET ANOTHER QUOTE VFROM A DIFFERENT PERSON, SIMILAR TO THIS: “Not only will AHCA take away our freedom,” said Dawn Russell, an ADAPT organizer from Colorado. “That lost freedom will also cost Americans much more money. The nursing facilities that people will be forced into are much more expensive than community-based services that AHCA would cut.”] In 2012, the National Council on Disability (an independent federal agency that makes policy recommendations to the President, Congress and federal agencies) reported that States spent upwards of $300,000 more per person serving disabled people in institutions each year than they would spend providing equivalent services in the community.
The protest falls just days after a protest in Washington DC where ADAPT activists were literally dragged out of the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the 18th anniversary of Olmstead v. LC the 1999 Supreme Court Ruling which first recognized disabled people’s right to live in the community. [INSERT QUOTE ABOUT OLMSTEAD AND MEDICAID CUTS, LIKE THIS: ADAPT organizer Nancy Salandra of Pennsylvania was quick to note the connection between that case and the AHCA. “We fought so hard to have our right live in the community recognized and here we are 18 years later and we are still fighting for our freedom from incarceration. And to protect that freedom we are putting our bodies on the line.”]
[INSERT FINAL QUOTE TO EMPHASIZE THE ISSUE, LIKE THIS: “To say people will die under this law is not an exaggeration,” said Mike Oxford, an ADAPT organizer from Kansas. “Home and community based services are what allow us to do our jobs, live our lives and raise our families. Without these services many disabled and elderly Americans will die. We won’t let that happen.”]
ADAPT’s history, the issues we are fighting for and our activities can be followed on our web site at www.adapt.org, our ADAPT Facebook page and on Twitter – look for #ADAPTandRESIST
###