The Tennessean, Monday September 27, 1993
[This article is in Images ADAPT 822 and ADAPT 821 but the entire text is included here for easier reading.]

Photo by Casey Daley, staff: the picture frame is filled with marchers in ADAPT T-shirts coming toward the camera. One poster reads "Free Our People" and another "Stop Building Nursing Homes" Most of the marchers in the photo are in wheelchairs and looking determined. Doug Chastain head is in the very front, and Loretta Duefriend is behind hime. Behind her (with the posters) are Robin Stephens barefoot with no shoes, and to her left Laura Hershey is driving her chair with her mouth and has on a chest strap. Arthur Campbell is behind Laura in a white shirt with a picture of Wade and Lincoln on it. Severak riws behind them and behind a man walking are two women walking, Molly Blank with a smile and her hand by her chin, and Suzy Polkinghorn in a black T-shirt.

Caption reads: Members of a national disability group protest yesterday outside Opryland Hotel where hospital industry leaders are meeting. The protesters want more healthcare dollars to be directed toward home services.

[Title] Protesters block hotel for 2 hours
by Elizabeth Murray, Staff Writer.

John Taratino spent enough time attending a school for the blind where he was “told when to shower, when to eat and when to do my homework" that he knows a nursing home can't be much different.

"This is about choice," Taratino, 28, of Long Island, N.Y., said as more than 250 people — all members of a national group called American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT — demonstrated outside Opryland Hotel yesterday, blocking entrance there for more than two hours.

The demonstration literally overtook the intersection of Briley Parkway and Music Valley Drive, delaying an awards-night reception for the Association of Songwriters, Composers and Producers and backing up traffic on Briley Parkway.

ADAPT's beef is with the American Health Care Association, the nation's largest lobbying group for nursing homes, which is holding a conference at Opryland this week. To ADAPT, the association represents institutionalization of people with disabilities who would rather live more independently at home.

“If people had a choice, nursing homes would diminish or die out completely," said local ADAPT member Diane Coleman, who, like the rest of her group, wants at least 25% of national Medicaid dollars to be funneled into home health care rather than nursing-home care.

“The way [nursing homes] make their money is kind of like how ranchers make theirs — so many head of cattle or the number of beds filled," said national ADAPT organizer Mike Auberger of Denver, who helped rally almost 500 people to travel to Nashville to protest the healthcare association.

"The industry would like to tell you it’s just a bunch of old people in nursing homes, but a lot of people just have ‘disabilities. The whole idea of redirecting that money makes so much sense. If I'm in a nursing home, someone else is making my choices about what I wear, what I eat, when I sleep, and it costs more."

Amid chants of “People are dying, shame on you" and “Free our brothers, free our sisters," association spokeswoman Linda Keegan negotiated with ADAPT organizers a meeting between 50 ADAPT members and the AHCA's leadership, to be held at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

Keegan said her group opposes redirecting any Medicaid dollars toward home health services but said, “Perhaps the issue has come to a head because of President Clinton's [health-care reform] proposal. It provides a lot of opportunities for our organizations to work together.”

Keegan said the two groups agree on the basic idea of more funding for home health care but disagree on how to go about it. AHCA supports a national policy for long-term health care.

"In exchange for the opportunity to make an in-person plea to the association brass, ADAPT members agreed that for the rest of the week they will protest only in a designated area of Opryland Hotel's parking lot.

“This situation is truly unfortunate and it's especially unfortunate for innocent third parties to be affected at all," Opryland spokesman Torn Adkinson said.

The AHCA convention will continue this week and will feature an address tomorrow morning from retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

BOXED TEXT:

[Title] What they want

American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, called ADAPT, wants 25% of the federal Medicaid budget lo be directed toward establishing national policies to pay for personal attendant services so people with disabilities can live at home. The group argues that such home health care is more cost-effective and yields a higher quality of life. "We're saying that, at a minimum, 25% of people who live in nursing homes would like to live in their own home," said Mike Auberger, a national organizer for ADAPT; "But the bottom line is that 90% of the nursing homes in this country are for-profit, and allowing choice would take money from them.

The American Health Care Association, the nation's largest nursing-home lobby, "absolutely disagrees“ that tunneling 25% of Medicaid dollars into home health care is a good idea, said Linda Keegan, association spokeswoman. Shifting funds in that way might deny nursing-home care to people who want it, she said. "That is essentially robbing Peter to pay for Paul." The association would rather see additional funds provided so that both nursing-home and at home health care could be offered. The two groups agree on the need for a national policy on long-term health care.

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Tuesday 16 July 2013

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Tuesday 4 February 2020

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