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Accueil / Albums / Washington DC, Spring 1994 - A Bridge to Freedom 33
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Nashville Banner FROM PAGE ONE Tuesday, May 3, 1994 A-2 [Headline] Midstate woman with MD marches for health reform By Judy Holland Banner/States News Writer WASHINGTON — As she guides her electric wheelchair in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, it's clear Wynelle Carson is a woman set on independence. Her wish to live free of a nursing home prompted this 34-year-old Mount Pleasant woman with muscular dystrophy to join more than 2,000 people with disabilities in a march on the U.S. Capitol. Carson was part of a contingent from Middle Tennessee who joined other activists from across the country Monday in lobbying lawmakers and President Clinton for health care reform that includes payment for attendants who can help them live at home. It wasn't the first time members from ADAPT — Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today — picketed to draw attention to their plight. Last fall in Nashville, the group disrupted operations at the Opryland Hotel and the state Capitol while the American Health Care Association—which represents most of the nation's nursing homes — was in town for its annual convention. The protest which threatened to disrupt the Country Music Awards, erupted into a melee with overturned wheelchairs that ended in the arrests of 97 activists. Monday's rally, which included speeches and songs, was one of the mellower protests for the group, which has occupied offices, blockaded buildings and forced mass ar rests to draw the spotlight to their cause. Disabled rights activists, who want 25 percent of all Medicaid dollars diverted from nursing homes to home health care, say civil disobedience is the only way they can combat the powerful nursing home lobby. "People like me are being forced into nursing homes if we can't pay someone out of our pocket," Maury County's Carson said. "It's horrible." Carson said her father, a retired machine operator, shells out $900 a month for an attendant who helps her dress, bathe and prepare meals in her own apartment. Her mother also comes over often to lend a hand. "I feel really guilty all the time because I'm taking away from them," said Carson, who works part-time at the Technology Access Center in Nashville. "I worry if something happens to them and they've spent all their money on me, what are they going to do?" Carson joined others on scooters and in wheelchairs who waived signs such as "I don't want a handout, just a hand," or "Would you like to live in a nursing home? Not." While Canon prepared for the "Bridge to Freedom" march from Arlington Memorial Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial, Diane Coleman of Cumberland Furnace in Dickson County joined disabled rights activists in a visit with the president. Clinton, whose health care plan would phase in $65 billion to $70 billion for community and home-based care, urged the activists to lobby for his proposal in Congress. "A lot of disabled people spend their entire lives with their parents the and then go into a nursing home when the parents die," said Coleman, Tennessee organizer for ADAPT. "In Tennessee, it's very difficult to get any in-home services if you are disabled. In that regard, it's one of the worst states in the country."
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THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON April 29, 1994 Greetings to everyone gathered in our nation's capital to voice your support for providing health security to all Americans. I am delighted that so many of you have come together for this exciting event. Now is the time to act on our awareness that disabilities are a natural part of the human experience. Having a disability does not diminish one's right to participate in any aspect of mainstream society. With the shared strengths of all those participating in this rally, you send a powerful message —— the key to improving the quality of life for millions of Americans with disabilities and their families is passing a comprehensive health care plan that meets the needs of each one of our citizens. The active participation of groups like ADAPT, the National Council on Independent Living, and the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities is essential in meeting this crucial goal. I commend you for working toward making health care reform a reality. Your knowledge and expertise are helping to advance the rights of and services for all Americans, especially those persons with disabilities, and I thank you for your leadership and dedication. Working together, we can build a health care system that moves our nation from exclusion to inclusion, from dependence to independence, and from paternalism to empowerment. Hillary joins me in extending best wishes to all for a successful rally. [signed] Bill Clinton
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[This article continues from Image 860. Full text is available under image 860 for easier reading]
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[This is a series of charts with text, that is very difficult to read due to the poor copy quality.] Headline: Disabilities and health care reform People with disabilities constitute a sizable portion of the US population, and most Americans will become disabled if they live long enough. Activists say meaningful health care reform should cover everyone and meet the particular needs of the disabled. Numbers The census Bureau says 49 million (19.4 percent) of the 251.8 million Americans have some disability. Pie Chart shows 202.9 million have no disability, 24.8 million have a non-severe disability and 24.1 million have a severe disability. AGE 56 million Americans are younger than 15 years old, 31 million are 65 or older and 165 million are between 15 and 65 years old. The number of disabled in each group [there is a chart showing these numbers on a horizontal graph.] [Text continues] Someone is considered disabled if her or she has used a wheelchair, cane or similar aid for six months or more, has difficulty seeing, hearing or being understood, has difficulty dressing, eating or toileting, has difficulty preparing meals or keeping track of money, or is mentally or emotionally unstable. A severe disability includes many of these categories in combination or conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or cerebral palsy. [Headline] Health Insurance [Subheading] Type of coverage for the 165 million Americans between 15 and 64 years old [3 pie charts are below] The first is labeled No Disability and shows 80% have private insurance, 14.8% have no insurance, and 5.2% have government program. The second pie chart is labeled Disability, Not Severe and shows 74.1% have private insurance, 18.7% have no insurance and 7.2% have government program. The third chart is labeled severe Disability and shows 48.1% have private insurance, 36.2% have government program and 15.7% have no insurance. Source: US Census Bureau
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LOS ANGELES TIMES Title: INSURE: Home Care May Be in Package Continued from A1 (unavailable at this time) The emerging basic benefits package, which is also expected to cover mental health services and electlve abortions. is at the core of the overall health care reform agenda that the President is expected to unveil in mid-June. That the President has tentatively decided to include long-term care in the basic benefits package ls not a surprise. although it marks a dramatic new turn in federal health policy. Administration officials. most notably Mrs. Clinton, have strongly argued that long-term custodial care at home is much cheaper than that provided in a health care institution or a nursing home. The long-term care program is expected to be vigorously supported by such powerful groups as the American Assn. of Retired Persons—but just as strongly opposed by the insurance industry. which would like to see private insurers continue selling such policies. Whether the long-term care program will gain widespread middle-class support remains to be seen. On the one hand. the cost of the President's health care reform could roach $90 billion or more a year. and that could sap popular support for his agenda, including the long-term care coverage. Yet key Administration officials view long-term care as a family issue that cuts across generations and they are known to believe that such coverage would gain the support of members of the middle class because it affords them a new measure of peace of mind. "Protection from the high cost of long-term care increases the public's willingness to support and pay for health care reform," said Judith N. Brown, who chairs AARP's board of directors. An estimated 7 million disabled Americans need help annually with basic daily tasks, and that number may double by the year 2030, according to Sen. William S. Cohen of Maine. the ranking Republican member on the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Today, nearly half of all long-term care costs are paid for out-of- pocket by those in need or their families. The high costs of such labor-intensive care often wipes out the life savings of those without long-term care coverage, forcing them into Medicaid programs to make them eligible for government-subsidized nursing home care. The Administration's long-term goal is to provide coverage for institutional care as well. One top insurance industry official called It "a fundamental mistake" to include long-term care for all disabled Americans regardless of age or wealth. "Those who can afford to cure for themselves should attempt to take care of themselves." he said, asking to rennin anonymous. According lo one set of options prepared for the President by his task force working group on long-term care, purchase of such coverage could be voluntary. During a recent closed meeting with members of Congress. Mrs. Clinton cited as one model for the White House a program in Wisconsin that began in the mid-1980s called Community Options Program. It now serves 11,300 disabled persons. And by keeping them out of more expensive nursing homes or other institutions, the $71.6-million program is saving an average of more than $100 million annually, officials said. COI has a two-year waiting list of 3,700 persons. The program uses personal case-managers in each county and is often tailored to each individual. A similar program in Arkansas, which also has served as a paradigm for the Administration, has 10,000 beneficiaries, many of whom are costing the state $300 a month instead of $1,200 a month for intermediate care in a nursing home, officials said.
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10A The Nation Disabled demand health care WASHINGTON — Chanting “Free our people now,” protesters marched with canes and crutches, followed seeing-eye dogs and rolled in wheelchairs to the capital yesterday to press for comprehensive health care for nearly 50 million Americans with disabilities. More than 1,000 of those with disabilities and their advocates joined the “Bridge to Freedom” parade from Arlington National Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial, a route many had marched four years ago to push for the Americans With Disabilities Act.
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Photo by Tom Olin (?): President Clinton is standing on a platform edge smiling and bending forward slightly to receive a dark binder or book from two women in wheelchairs (L Denise Figueroa and R Stephanie Thomas). Stephanie is also handing Clinton a note on top of the book. Behind the president are a couple officials in chairs and a podium beside which stands an interpreter for the deaf. To the far side of the platform is a man with a camera and four people in wheelchairs. Paul Spooner is sitting in the middle of that group with a health care for all T-shirt. Lurking by the wall are secret service men in their dark suits.
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Photo by Tom Olin(?): In a hotel meeting room six people in wheelchairs sit in a row. On the far right a man with a thick beard in a power chair speaks into a microphone held by the man [Bob Liston] sitting beside him. Liston, and all the others, are in manual chairs. To his left is a woman [Karen Tamley] with her legs crossed in her seat. To her left is a tall woman [Marva Ways] and a man both dressed in white. To their left a man [Terrance Turner] with a camera and many buttons. Behind them is a TV set which is on but facing sideways. Everyone but Mike is smiling and laughing. Mike holds his hand by his ear and has a deadpan look.
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A large group of people are standing behind a row of empty chairs and a roped stancheon. They are looking at President Clinton who is on the other side of the barrier smiling and shaking hands with a woman in a pink ADAPT T-shirt (Anita Cameron) and blue jeans. Her hair is braided with read and white beads. On her other side is a woman in a suit smiling at Anita and with her hand on Anita's back. On the other side of Clinton a woman in a manual wheelchair (Stephanie Thomas), a pink ADAPT t-shirt and jeans, is looking up at Clinton with a determined expression, not exactly smiling. Beside her is another woman in a manual wheelchair also looking at Clinton and smiling. She has on a Real Healthcare for All t-shirt that several people in the crowd are also wearing. Almost no one except the President looks relaxed, and few look really happy; they look tense.
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p.A14 The Sacramento Bee Final, Tuesday. May 3, 1994 NEWSLINE Photo by the Associated Press: A mass of marchers in a wide erratic formation cross a bridge in the street, while pedestrians head in the opposite direction or watch the crowd from the sidewalk. A few camera people are filming. In the front of the march Jennifer McPhail, San Antonio Fuentes, Bob Kafka, with several others on either side. Caption reads: Fighting for health reform Activists with disabilities cross Washington's Memorial Bridge on their way to Arlington National Cemetery. They arrived Monday from 26 states to lobby for health care reform.
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Boston Sunday Globe Sunday May 1, 1994 Globe Photo by Dennis Vandal: A woman sits in her reclining wheelchair in front of a raise up computer. On her lapboard in front of her she has one hand on a device of some kind. Above that on a raised platform in front of the computer is a keyboard. She appears to have very limited mobility. What look like degrees or awards hang on the walls beside her computer and behind her. The room is dark. Caption reads: Veronica McSherry, working at her computer in her Worchester home, says without a personal care attendant, "I couldn't function at all." [Headline] Disabled are wary on health reform [subheading] Washington rally set to air concerns By Richard A. Knox, Globe Staff Advocates for Americans with disabilities, a group that by one official count makes up one-fifth of the US population, say disabled people constitute a litmus test for health care reform. “If the system works for us, it will work for anybody," says Linda Long, a Massachusetts disability lawyer. But the way health care reform addresses the needs of the disabled is a test many anxious activists fear Congress will fail. Some believe reform may even leave people with disabilities worse off than they are now. “ln a very real sense, people with disabilities have the most to gain and the most to lose with health care reform," says Frederick A. Fay, a Massachusetts psychologist who has been paralyzed from the neck down since a backyard accident 30 years ago. “I'm a little discouraged," adds Edward V. Roberts. a Californian who founded the ‘independent living" movement in the 1970s and now heads the World Institute on Disabilities. Like 1,000 or more other advocates for disabled people, Roberts plans to roll his wheelchair across Washington's Memorial Bridge tomorrow to a rally at the Lincoln Memorial. “Somehow we've got to wake Americans up to the fact that this issue is not just about money." People with disabilities are not just “a little special interest group." insists Washington activist Justin Dart Jr., 64, the Republican scion of a wealthy Houston family and a wheelchair-using polio survivor. Disability touches “every family in America, including the families of the health care lobbyists who oppose significant reform, Dart says. The number of Americans with disabilities is large by any reckoning. The Census Bureau's definition encompasses 49 million people, about half of whom are considered severely disabled. Mitchell LaPlante, who heads the Disability Statistics Program at the University of California at San Francisco, says 36 million Americans have impairments that significantly limit their activities, about 25 mfllion of whom are under age 65. But such static numbers can be misleading. The figures show that the vast majority of Americans will become disabled if they live long enough. Brandis University sociologist Irving Kenneth Zola, another polio survivor, notes that “from one third to one-half of one's later years will be spent dealing with a disability." To underscore this point. some disability activists like to call the rest of us “temporarily able-bodied.” “We embody the health care needs of the total population over time," says Bob Griss, director of the Washington-based Center on Disability and Health. “If the system doesn't meet our needs now, it isn’t going to meet the temporarily able-bodied population's later on.” No one is so heartless (or politically foolhardy) as to assert publicly that this country cannot afford to care for people who use wheelchairs, require assistance to dress or bathe, or are dependent on respirators. Nevertheless, the reform debate's current rhetorical drift is propelled by an assumption that many proposals are too costly even for Americans with ordinary health care needs, not to mention those who need [words missing] intensive care. [subheadline] Attack on universal coverage Politicians express doubt, for example, that the nation can guarantee universal health insurance coverage. Lack of insurance is a special problem for people with disabilities, more than 4 million of whom lack any coverage despite government safety-net programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. “A person with a disability who does not have health insurance utilizes 35 to 50 percent less physician and hospital care, compared to one with similar disabilities who is insured," says LaPlante. Many worry about the strong incentives to join managed care health plans in many proposals, including President Clinton's. They point out that such plans’ emphasis on gate-keepers--primary care physicians who decide whether patients need more specialized care--may bar disabled subscribers from seeing specialists for their unique needs. “Typically you have to make a lot of noise to get the care you need,” said Michael Auberger, 39, a leader of ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) who was paralyzed in all four extremities by a bobsled accident. “If you aren't a real strong advocate, you just continue to deal with physicians who have no idea about disability.” “Their concerns are probably correct," said Dr. Harris Berman, president of Tufts-Associated Health Plan in Massachusetts. “I'd welcome legislation to ensure that disabled people are appropriately cared for. That's what government is for.” Another motif in the debate is the assertion that health insurance benefits, current and proposed, are too generous. The American Academy of Actuaries last month criticized Clinton's health plan benefit package as “richer than it should be,” while conservative members of Congress argue that liberal tax treatment of health insurance premiums has led to Americans being “over-insured.” Such statements have an ominous ring to disability activists, most of whom favor either a government sponsored “single-payer” health plan or Clinton's proposal, even though they criticize certain elements.
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Photo by Tom Olin: A man [Mike Auberger] with his hair pulled back and a big beard speaks into a bunch of microphones on a stand. He has a very severe look on his face. He's wearing a red ADAPT T-shirt that says Bridge to Freedom below the ADAPT Free Our People Logo. He is seated in a wheelchair and is holding down a bunch of papers across his lap. On his knees he has two Health Care For All stickers. Behind him, slightly out of focus, loom two white columns of the Lincoln Monument and the blackness of the interior.
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The Washington Times Washington, D. C., Tuesday May 3, 1994
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[Headline] Disabled Group Backs Clinton Plan [Subheading] Activists roll into East Room for pep talk on health care Associated Press Washington President Clinton got an emotional boost for his proposed health reforms yesterday from advocates for the disabled who packed the East Room of the White House in wheelchairs. “This is not just a health care issue. It's a work issue," said the president, who said reform would “empower" disabled Americans by outlawing discrimination by insurers and making it easier for the disabled to get jobs. Justin Dart, a former Reagan administration official, roused the audience with the declaration, “We are willing to die for our country, but not for our insurance companies.” “No more excuses. No more exclusion. No more profiteering. No more Band-Aid solutions,” said Dart, who once ran the Rehabilitation Services Administration. Clinton, whose plan would offer working disabled people a tax credit of up to $15,000 a year for personal assistance services, urged the leaders of the disabled to help him fight for health coverage for all Americans. “You are carrying on your shoulders now not only your own cause but ours as well,” he said. The disabled leaders chanted, “Free our people! Free our people!” after the president's speech. Later they joined 2,000 others, most in wheelchairs, who streamed across the Memorial Bridge and rallied at the Lincoln Memorial to demand long-term care and personal attendant services as part of health reform. Meanwhile, proponents of Canadian-style single-payer health reform began an advertising campaign yesterday. In three television and radio ads, comedians Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller spoof the insurance industry's $10 million Harry and Louise ad campaign, in which a husband and wife complain that the Clinton health plan would mean more government bureaucracy and less choice. The ads promote a government-run system proposed by Senator Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Representative Jim McDermott, D-Wash., which has 91 House and five Senate sponsors. The single-payer approach, which would be financed by taxes, would eliminate health care insurers and have the government pay most medical bills. In one ad, Meara weeps while watching Harry and Louise on television. “I’m confused about Harry and Louise,” she sobs, adding, "They're so confused about health care. They keep saying there's got to be a better way." “There is,” Stiller replies. “The single payer system where everyone's covered, you get full benefits and you choose your doctor.” Money for the campaign is being raised by organizations such as Public Citizen, a San Francisco based grass-roots lobby called Neighbor to Neighbor and Single Payer Across the Nation. They spent $250,000 on the ads and hope to raise $1 million.
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The Washington Times Two Photos by Kenneth Lambert, The Washington Times Photo one: A man [George Roberts] in a motorized wheelchair is rolling along pushing a stroller with a little baby in it. He is wearing an ADAPT T-shirt and cap with buttons on it. Taped to the side of his chair is a poster reading "NO MORE WAREHOUSING." Two people are jogging in the background. Photo two: An older man is walking with a couple of other people in front of a very large banner. He is bent forward pushing someone [Harry Richardson?] in a laying down gurney type wheelchair. Beside him walks a man with a Health Care for All t-shirt/ Beside and behind them you can see a man in a suit carrying an American flag as well as marchers in wheelchairs. Caption reads: Don’t fence us in George Robert (above) pushes his daughter among some 2,000 disabled Americans who rolled across Memorial Bridge yesterday seeking better health care. Many. such as Harry Richardson (below), want home attendants, a cheaper, healthier alternative to nursing homes. President Clinton said his health plan gives the disabled more freedom to work.