Excluded from Health Care Reform--And from Civil Rights

by Dora Raymaker · 2009-04-28 09:22:00 UTC
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a young white woman with brown hair in profile, just head and shoulder, her other arm is visible handcuffed to the black vertical cast iron bar of the fence, she is wearing a good hoop earring91 ADAPT activists handcuffed themselves to the White House fence [all quotes from this article] yesterday in outrage over the exclusion of long term support from health care reform.

The Community Choice Act, which enables people who need long term support to get the services they need and to have the right to choose where they want to live, would finally provide a way out of institutions and nursing homes. It would give those of us who need long term support to have the same thing that every other citizen has: the choice to live in the community. It would break some of the terrible bureaucratic catch-22s that prevent people with disabilities from working, or enjoying a high quality of life, or choosing where to live. It would enable the Supreme Court ruling that inappropriate institutionalization is discrimination in violation of the ADA to be upheld.

But after meeting with the Obama administration, ADAPT says,

"They said very clearly that they would rather see people with disabilities in institutions, that they would leave them there, because there were higher priorities for this Administration," said Bruce Darling from Rochester, "this is a civil rights issue and they need to see this as a civil rights issue. No other group of people get locked up in institutions and nursing homes just because of who they are. We are making it clear to the President that this is not acceptable."

Darling characterized the Administration health care policy as "betrayal."

Betrayal indeed, recall the message about equality and inclusion Obama once gave to people with disabilities. In fact, it's even a big reason why many of us voted for him.

"My heart is broken," said Dawn Russell, ADAPT organizer in Denver, Colorado. "Throughout the Presidential campaign, ADAPT worked hard to educate the Obama campaign. We came to believe in the Obama promise of 'change,' and we really believed that President Obama was the person who really would 'free our people' from being imprisoned in nursing homes and other institutions. Untold numbers of people have died or been abused waiting for their freedom, and we just got told we aren't important enough and so we have to keep waiting."

Not acceptable. Obama administration: Do better. Now.

Here's ABC News coverage.

And here's an action.

Photo source http://www.adapt.org/freeourpeople/cca09/report03.htm

Dora Raymaker

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