ADAPT is in DC! How to Follow the Action(s)

I really should have posted this over the weekend, but got waylaid by the usual parade of mundane but demanding household tasks that tend to occupy that timeblock.

On Saturday, September 19, ADAPT activists from around the country converged on Washington, DC for several days of political advocacy and direct action.

Here's how ADAPT's September 16 press release described the days to come:

ADAPT Activists to Storm Washington DC; 
Vow to Fight State Cuts to Medicaid Home Services

Fighting dangerous state Medicaid budget cuts across the country, the 
national grassroots disability rights action group ADAPT is planning 
direct actions at several venues in Washington, DC between September 19 to 
22 to demand that states save Medicaid-funded home and community based 
services. These services support low income people with disabilities and 
who are aging to stay in their own homes instead of being forced into 
nursing facilities to obtain services. During this critical election 
season, ADAPT plans to make it clear that saving Medicaid services is key 
to winning the disability vote.

"During this time of fiscal panic, governors are looking for ways to save 
dollars," notes Mike Ervin of Chicago ADAPT. "Hundreds of us are coming to 
Washington because Congress and the White House need to step up efforts to 
protect Medicaid community services in the states. I use home services and 
without someone to assist me, I'd be waiting on some nursing home aide to 
change me or feed me whenever she was done with the other fifty people 
living in the same facility. With home services, I am in charge of my 
life."

Current Medicaid law mandates that states use their Medicaid programs to 
pay for nursing homes, but the law does not equally mandate that states 
pay for the same services in a person's own home. Today, most states 
recognize that providing home and community based services (HCBS) is a 
less expensive solution than institutions. However, in these tight fiscal 
times, Medicaid dollars funding "optional" services like HCBS are first on 
the budget chopping block, while the mandatory institutional budgets are 
rarely touched. ADAPT's current "Defending Our Freedom" campaign is a 
direct response to states' attacks against HCBS, services that allow 
people with disabilities to take care of themselves, raise their families 
and be part of society.

"Without the home services funded by Medicaid, hundreds, if not thousands, 
of people with disabilities in my state would be forced to live in nursing 
homes or institutions," said Joe Stramondo of Michigan ADAPT. "Some states 
are virtually on the edge of bankruptcy. It makes no sense to spend extra 
dollars on institutions when those same dollars could fund more people 
with disabilities to live in the communities of our choice."

To a lot of readers coming to this blog from outside of the disability community, this might seem like a departure from our usual focus. It's not. Not Dead Yet is a disability rights organization that engages in activism, including direct action. A majority of the disability activists who have marched, protested, chanted and even been arrested under the NDY banner were ADAPT activists (and still are) long before NDY was formed.

And make no mistake, the issues that ADAPT takes on are life and death issues for the millions of American with disabilities of all ages.  Check out this link and you'll find the blog entries on this blog that feature ADAPT - many of them in situations acting in support and solidarity over NDY issues.

I'm not sure if or when I'll be posting anything from the ADAPT action on the NDY blog this week.  There's a lot to catch up on in terms of NDY-specific issues.

Here are sites/links you can check for news, reports, information, etc. about ADAPT and this week's actions:

• National ADAPT Home Page
• ADAPT Press Release Archive (newest on top)
• ADAPT Action Report - (Sat and Sun are up), with links to Defending Our Freedom Blogspot, ADAPT action blog from the streets of DC, and Action Video.
• Tom Olin Photos.

In addition check out this coverage of yesterday's ADAPT action at CNN iReport.