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Hjem / Albumer / Free Our People March, 144 miles Philadelphia to DC, September 2003 85
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Aware News FALL 2003 Services for Independent Living, Inc. [Headline] MARCH for MiCASSA [By-line] Guy M. Fisher, Advocacy Program Consultant On September 17, 2003, hundreds of people with disabilities and their families, friends and supporters rallied at the United States Capitol and called on Congress to pass the Medicaid Community-Based Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA). MiCASSA is a federal bill that would make it easier for people with disabilities to get long-term care services in their homes and communities. If it becomes law, each state would have to phase in a consumer-oriented system of attendant services and supports to be provided in the home, at school or at work. Medicaid beneficiaries eligible for nursing home care could choose instead to use their Medicaid long-term care dollars for these new services in their own homes. The MiCASSA rally was the final step of a journey that began two weeks earlier at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, PA., when 200 protestors — many of them using wheelchairs left the nation's symbol of freedom on a grueling, 144-mile march to Washington, D C. The "Free Our People" march, sponsored by ADAPT, traveled up to 16 miles a day through pouring rain, scorching heat and all kinds of mechanical breakdowns. The marchers slept in tents and on cots and "dined" on a steady diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. "By enduring the obvious discomforts and inconveniences of the march," said ADAPT leaders, the marchers demonstrated their "Undying commitment to all persons, young and old, having the choice AND opportunity to live in the community with the supports and services they need." At several stops, the marchers were greeted by community leaders expressing support for MiCASSA. In Delaware, a state legislator promised to introduce a similar bill in the Delaware General Assembly and U.S. Senator. Joe Biden cheered on the protestors. "This march should show those that oppose us in Congress that you not only have the right to do this march," said Biden, "but the capacity and the gumption to take care of yourselves." By the time they reached Washington, the marchers had been joined by another 300 supporters. They had also received pledges from President George W. Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to meet with ADAPT to discuss MiCASSA. Many prominent advocates and members of Congress addressed the rally on Capitol Hill. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, an onginal sponsor of MiCASSA, declared that "it is long past time that people could be in their own homes, not somebody else's nursing home." This is the fourth time that MiCASSA has been considered by Congress and it has never been more important for advocates to get it passed. Less than one third of Medicaid's long-term care spending goes to community-based services and Medicaid continues to treat nursing home coverage as an entitlement while allowing states to provide community-based services as an option. With so many states in fiscal trouble, these optional services are at risk. "States are not allowed to cut federally mandated services, like nursing homes," ADAPT organizer Bob Liston told the Hartford Advocate. "The first on the chopping blocks are the so-called 'optional' services like 'home and community-based' programs." The Free Our People march has created momentum for MiCASSA. The marchers received national media attention and 14 members of Congress have added their support as co-sponsors since the march began on September 3rd. Three of those co-sponsors are Democratic presidential candidates: North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Missouri Representative Dick Gephardt and Cleveland-area Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Keep the momentum for MiCASSA going! Contact your congressional representatives and ask them to support MiCASS (S. 971 in the Senate and H.R. 2032 in the House of Representatives) so that people with disabilities can get the long-term care they need while remaining in their homes and communities. You can call your representatives through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and you can find the mail and e-mail addresses at the Congress.org website: hhtp://www.congress.org/ Don't forget to follow the progress of MiCASSA and other disability-realted legislation by subscribing to the North Coast disAbility News Source, SIL's weekly e-mail digest of online news articles relevant to disability issues. If you have access to a computer with an internet connection you can subsrcibe to the News Source by sending a blank e-mail message to SIL-News-subscribe@YahooGroups.com or by visiting the News Source home page at: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/sil-news/
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Page A2 • CECIL WHIG, Tuesday, September 9, 2003 LOCAL [image] [image caption] CECIL WHIG/Matt Given. 'Making their way along Route 40 in Elkton, members of the group ADAPT pass through Cecil County on Monday. Their destination is Washington, D.C. [Headline] Group carries message to D.C. By Mike Spector jnspector@cecilwhig.com ELKTON — About 160 people An wheelchairs left motorists on Route 40 in the dust here Monday afternoon. Escorted by state police and slowing down traffic beside them, disabled people "marched" approximately 10.4 miles from Elkton to North East as part of the "Free our People" march sponsored by ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights group. The group is marching to send a message to Congress demanding the passage of the Medicaid Community-based Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA). The proposed legislation would guarantee disabled and older Americans a choice in where they receive their long-term care services and supports, according to ADAPT. Current Medicaid regulations force elderly and disabled citizens into nursing homes, ADAPT charges, because such federally mandated programs aren't allowed to be cut. This means optional programs that allow those people to receive services at home are first on budget cut lists, according to ADAPT. The march began in Philadelphia and culminates in Washington, D.C., at a 20,000 person rally on Capitol Hill. A few minutes before 4 p.m., marchers were near Nazarene campground, where they will spend the night before continuing to Havre de Grace. Teams with 50 tents, 12 port-a-potties and a 350-gallon water tank set up and strike camp each night for the marchers, according to ADAPT spokesperson Bob Kafka. The group also carries a generator to charge power wheelchairs overnight. Monday night will be unusual, because the marchers will have an indoor facility at their disposal, Kafka said. Kafka said most assume elderly and disabled people have to get their services in nursing homes, when they could be getting them at home. Kafka said up to 2 million people in those institutions don't have a real choice when it comes to where they live and receive assistance. He believes MiCASSA is the answer. "We're challenging Congress' leadership," Kafka said of the marchers, "saying this piece of legislation has to be the number-one priority of the 108th Congress." The Maryland Department of Transportation's State Highway Administration, Maryland Transportation Authority, Maryland Transit Administration, Maryland State Police and local police agencies assisted the group, establishing right lane closures on Pulaski Highway to protect the participants. A pollee motor-cade, crash-attenuating truck and arrow board vehicle escorted the marchers. Portions of Route 40 will be affected across the state Sept. 8 until Sept. 16, as the protestors continue toward Washington, D.C. Marchers Monday afternoon were enthusiastic. Daniese McMullin. Powell, 57, of Newark, Del., carried an American flag and a message. "For our people, our home is not nursing homes," she said.
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Rally End of the Road [image] [image caption] Making a point: Bob Kafka, head of the disability group ADAPT, takes part in a rally in Washington Wednesday. He was with a group that traveled from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to support the Medicaid Community Attendant Service and Supports Act currently in Congress.
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