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Accueil / Albums / Mots-clés attendant services
+ AHCA - American Health Care Association + President George Bush 2
ADAPT (755)
TITLE: Clinton, disability rights advocates reach accord on attendant services by Gary Bosworth, special to Access USA News Photo (possibly by Gary Bosworth): A line of ADAPT protesters, mostly in wheelchairs are chanting on the sidewalk outside a large stone building. Quinn Brisben and Ken Heard are at one end and Bob Kafka at the other. You can see barricades behind them. Caption reads: Members of ADAPT protest in front of the Marriot in San Francisco during the annual convention of the nursing home lobby, American Health Care Association. [This article continues on ADAPT 754 but the entire text is included here for easier reading. There is a statement by Gov. Clinton after this article.] On Monday, October 19, the Clinton/Gore campaign released a policy statement that forcefully supports attendant services for persons with disabilities instead of institutionalization The agreement worked out was the culmination of more than a month's negotiation between the Clinton/Gore campaign and the disability rights group ADAPT. In September, ADAPT contacted both the Bush/Quayle and the Clinton/Gore campaigns about the issue of attendant services. Both campaigns were asked to issue policy statements supporting independence for persons with disabilities through attendant services. A mid-October deadline for the statement was given because ADAPT was going to be In San Francisco for a national action at the site of the annual convention for the nursing home lobby, American Health Care Association (AHCA). While the Bush/Quayle campaign ignored the request, Clinton/Gore worked on a statement that was faxed to ADAPT as they were arriving in San Francisco on October 17. The Clinton/Gore statement went a long way to addressing the needs of attendant services, but was still missing the fact that a major crux of the problem had to with the bias in how federal regulations favor more expensive nursing home care instead of less expensive, more efficient attendant services Without the additional language, ADAPT went ahead with its planned non-violent protest march on Monday, October 19. Over 400 persons with disabilities marched in two `groups`, targeting the headquarters of Bush/Quayle and Clinton/Gore simultaneously. In response, the Bush/Quayle headquarters not only blocked off all wheelchair access to their headquarters, they also installed barricades blockading the entrances outside manned by platoons of police, Over at the Clinton/Gore headquarters no barricades were erected as more than 100 persons in wheelchairs from twenty states occupied every nook and cranny of the headquarters, leaving several dozen protesters lined up outside as police looked on without barricades After several hours of the occupation, an updated version of the earlier statement was faxed directly to ADAPT at the protest, from the Clinton/Gore national headquarters. The new revised statement was read to the assembled crowd of wheelchair warriors by Clinton’s director on national disability policy, Bobby Simpson. The final proposal is a far-ranging progressive document that: (1) persons with disabilities must be given the right to choose consumer-driven, community-based attendant services versus institutionalization, (2) employment as attendants by young women and men will be encouraged as an option under the National Service Trust Fund service to their community, (3) appointing a task force that will submit a reform package within the first 100 days of the Clinton Administration to overhaul federal regulations to remove their overwhelming institutionalization bias and instead propose regulations to make attendant services more available, and (4) the task force will include members with disabilities from prominent disability rights `groups` such as ADAPT. With this victory, the occupation was called a success by both the peaceful protesters in their wheelchairs and the workers of the Clinton/Gore campaign. That was in sharp contrast to the mood at the Bush/Quayle headquarters where the republican campaign refused to negotiate and instead issued a statement that the efforts by ADAPT were 'counter-productive' and 'a disservice to the disabled'. The next day, the mood changed again when California’s budget cuts in the state SSI/SSP of 16 1/2percent and attendant services of 12 percent were the subject of the action. The two sites targeted were the federal building and the state building in San Francisco. The police were caught off guard being stationed only at the state building. The federal protective service in charge of the federal building wasn't ready either. What followed was a declaration by ADAPT that the federal building was being turned into a nursing home for the day with all access in and out shut down. Police responded with mass arrests of 49 protesters in the plaza in front of the federal building as the protesters linked arms and wheelchairs together. The remainder of the group then continued on to the state building. Police had removed troops from the state building to go to the federal building. No arrests occurred at the state building as the group chanted and passed out fliers to passers-by. The 49 arrested were held for the day, ticketed, and released down at pier 38, which the police turned into a huge booking and holding facility. On the final planned day of protests, Wednesday, the AMCA convention hotel was the site of the dally protest. Police arrested 114 persons that day when the driveways and streets in front of the Marriott hotel were blocked by people using wheelchairs. It took hours to transport those arrested back down the pier. This prompted Mike Auberger of ADAPT to comment, "If I knew I would be spending so much time here I would have brought my fishing pole.” When released, the group marched in formation backto their own hotel for a night of celebration. It was a long week of work done getting the message out to the general public about the issue of attendant services as a basic civil rights issue. Among the celebrations held Wednesday night was a special wedding ceremony of two ADAPT protesters from Philadelphia and a musical concert put on by performers with disabilities that lasted into the wee hours. By all accounts, the week was a success. Even the police mentioned several times they were totally unprepared for the dedication and training of ADAPT members during the action to the point of admiration that the protesters never lost sight of why they were there - to expose the inhumanity of locking up persons with disabilities into nursing homes, when attendant services are less expensive, more humane, and let individuals retain their civil rights. the end TITLE: Statement of Governor Clinton on Personal Assistance Services I support efforts to make affordable personal assistance services available to Americans with disabilities. We must ensure that all people have the opportunity to live independent lives. People who have disabilities and have a need for personal assistance services should have maximum control over the care they receive. Personal assistance serves must be consumer driven- they must be met by the needs and desires of the user, not the dictates of the supplier. I believe that personal assistance services are of the utmost importance. I understand that every person has different needs. For this reason, I believe that every person has the right to personal assistance services. I believe that personal assistance services should be provided by a wide range of qualified individuals. In my proposal for a National Service Trust Fund, I have suggested that young men and women who go to college can pay for their education by spending two years working in jobs which serve our community - teaching our children, policing our streets, rebuilding our infrastructure. Employment in personal assistance services should be an option in this program, and I hope thousands of men and women choose it. This is only one of many ways in which we can expand the scope of available services. Personal assistance services should be a part of any comprehensive health care reform plan. For this reason, I intend to appoint a task force, including individuals with disabilities, on the role of personal assistance services and long term care in health care reform. Among other things, this task force should examine the role of federal regulations and funding which creates a presumption in favor of institutionalized care over home and community-based services. I have promised to submit a reform package to Congress in the first 100 days of my Administration. The task force will submit recommendations on reform in that time period. It is time for America to realize that silence on issues of concern to people with disabilities is as damaging as prejudice. As President, I will work with individuals with disabilities to empower people to live independently, I will bring people together and make this plan a reality.
ADAPT (688)
[This clipping has 2 articles in it. Article 2 starts in the left top column. Article 1 continued from ADAPT 691 and the text of that article in included with ADAPT 691 for easier reading.] ARTICLE 2 Title: Health care activism on the rise Title: Special-interest patient `groups` are multiplying while the amount of money available is decreasing. By Delthia Ricks, of the Sentinel staff The dilemmas of increasing numbers of special-interest patient `groups` and a decreasing supply of health care dollars are spawning a growing militant movement in medical care. The opening of the American Health Care Association’s annual meeting in Orlando has drawn a spotlight to the activism increasingly associated with national health care issues. From AIDS to breast cancer to rare diseases, patients are organizing and resorting to demonstrations and protests — often violent ones — to express their views. Members of ADAPT — American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today — have formed human barricades, chained themselves by the neck to buildings, tacked up posters against the Health and Human Services secretary, and hurled themselves from wheelchairs. The group stages many of these demonstrations at AHCA's meetings, which ADAPT routinely follows around the country. The non-profit AHCA, headquartered in Washington, is a key lobbying organization for nursing homes and other long-term health care facilities, representing about 10,000 of them nationwide. At issue for both `groups` is the way the federal government spends it health care money. Nursing home executives would like to see long-term health care policies reformed. ADAPT members want a share of the federal dollars going to nursing homes now. “They're not looking at the real issue, which is long-term health care financing," Linda Keegan, an AHCA vice president said of ADAPT. “One of the biggest issues we face today is long-term health care financing reform." Among the issues her organization will address throughout the week will be ways in which the government can devise a long-term health care policy and meet the needs of elderly and disabled Americans, she said. But ADAPT's members see billions of dollars currently flowing into long-term health care facilities and would like to have 25 percent. This way, they say, the disabled would be kept out of special care homes and living independently. ADAPT sees using money allocated through the state and federally administered Medicaid program for in-home health care aides. The aides would be paid to cook, drive and do chores for people who are blind, have lost the use of their limbs, or suffer other disabilities. “The issue is the right to independent living," said Ida Unsain, director of home health care at ADAPT‘s Denver headquarters. “People with disabilities are being admitted into care homes. Some of these individuals don't belong there and could be taken care of through home health. The current structure of reimbursement is slated toward care home industries, and what ADAPT is stating is that a percentage of that budget be allocated to states for independent care for the disabled." In 1989, the most recent year federal figures are available, the federal govemment paid $23 billion in nursing home costs through the Medicaid system. Another $23 billion was paid by a combination of family assets, Veterans Administration benefits and private insurance to meet additional nuising home costs. In Florida, nearly $850 million is paid to nursing homes from a Medicaid budget of about $4 billion, By 2020, federal officials estimate Washington's contribution to nursing homes will be $100 billion if the nation maintains the current Medicaid payment system. Lack of a long-term health care policy that will carry the nation into the 21st century has been as big a problem for established `groups`, such the AHCA, as it has been for patients. President Bush repeatedly has said that a long-term health care policy is an administration goal, but a plan that meets the needs of both the elderly and disabled has yet to be approved. ADAPT's Unsain said her group does not want to wait for the administration to produce a new long-term health care policy. Money may not be allocated for them in a new health-care pie, she said, and that's why ADAPT members are seeking money now. “The violence is part of the outcome," Unsain said. “lt's what happens when we try to express our views. It's not what we're all about." She attributes passage of last year's federal Disability Act mandating increased access for the disabled on public transportation systems, and in buildings, to ADAPT's militancy throughout the 1980s. Keegan of the nursing home association said ADAPT members, who stage protests every time the AHCA meets, are not concerned about changing the way the government finances long-term care. “I think the reason they follow us is because they are looking for attention, and the method they've chosen to got mention is confrontation and disruption.“ she said.