ADAPT gathers in Washington DC to reform Medicaid

Bobby Coward and Steve Gold Lecture on Affordable, accessible and integrated housing

ADAPT chapters from all over the country have been working for months to raise the money to bring activists to the action in Washington DC. MiCASSA is the prime objective of ADAPT, and advocates want to bring choice to our old and broken Medicaid system that funnels most of the money for long-term care into the nursing home industry rather than more desirable community alternatives.

No one wants to live in a nursing home. In Tennessee and across the nation, Americans have found that institutions are the least desirable and most expensive form of long-term care. Hundreds of ADAPT advocates are gathering in Washington DC today because Americans deserve choice. People must have options and not be forced because of a mental or physical disability, to live in an institution.

The advocates from across the nation came together at the Holiday Inn south of the capitol building. ADAPT is likely the most diverse group ever known. Most people notice the large number of wheelchair users in ADAPT, but ADAPT represents a broad spectrum of disabilities, as well as, diversity in race, creed, gender income and family status. ADAPT is a varied yet highly organized family.

Olmstead, the U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1998, declared an individual's right to live in the community. It prohibited states from unnecessary institutionalization and affirmed the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act mandate to provide services, like those provided in nursing homes and other institutions, in the most integrated setting. ADAPT is not simply pointing out problems in the nations long-term care system. ADAPT supports national legislation that will address this problem and bring choice to the fractured and outdated Medicaid system.

Senators Tom Harkin (D, IA) and Arlen Specter (R, PA), and Representatives Danny Davis (D, IL) and John Shimkus (R, IL) introduced MiCASSA to reform Medicaid the Medicaid Community Attendants Services and Supports Act [S. 1298 and HR 3612]. Across the country 73% of the Medicaid funding is spent on institutions, despite the fact that people overwhelmingly prefer to live in their own homes. 

- Tim Wheat