For Immediate Release: For Information Contact:
June 30, 2009
Travis Hoffman 728-1630
Mike Mayer 728-1630
Missoula, MT— Montanans with disabilities and those who are aging are angry that current federal health care reform efforts exclude the very services and supports that allow them to live in their own homes with the assistance they need. On July 2, they are taking that anger to the streets, with rallies and marches in seven of Montana’s larger cities that will deliver the message that “Long-Term Care is KEY.”
“It’s especially important that Sen. Baucus hears this message,” said Travis Hoffman, Advocacy Coordinator at Summit Independent Living. “Not only is he a “key” figure in health care reform, he represents our interests in Washington, and we want to be sure he knows not to compromise our freedom. We want him to end the bias in Medicaid that currently pays for us to be forced into nursing homes and institutions, but won’t pay less for us to get assistance in our own homes.”
Title II of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act assures older and disabled Americans the right to receive services in “the most integrated setting.” This “civil right” was affirmed by the June 22, 1999 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C.& E.W. when the court stated that “Unjustified isolation, we hold, is properly regarded as discrimination based on disability,” and is, thus, illegal. Despite the law and the court decision, the Bazelon Center in Washington reported, on June 24, 2009 that NO state in the nation has adequately fulfilled the mandate contained in the ADA and in Olmstead.
“Sen. Baucus has been adamantly opposed to including long-term care in health care reform,” said Bob Liston, Board President at Summit Independent Living Center, and Montana organizer for ADAPT. “This is simply unacceptable because we are talking about people’s lives here. Not only do people die waiting to get out of nursing homes, but when people are forced into nursing homes because of how Medicaid funding is now structured, they lose control over their lives, they lose their privacy, their freedom, they often lose their connections with family and friends, and their health deteriorates, which then costs more.”
More than 80 national aging and disability groups are calling for Sen. Baucus and Congress to include the Community Choice Act (CCA) in the health care reform effort. The CCA would remove the institutional bias from Medicaid, allowing people to choose where they want to receive assistance, whether in their own homes, or a nursing home. While some states, Montana included, provide some home and community-based services under a state-run program and/or by getting federal permission to “waive” the Medicaid rules, these services are considered “optional” and are among the first things cut when states tighten their belts. These services are not guaranteed in the same way that nursing home services are, and do not serve all the people who need them. Advocates are stating the CCA is “Key” to health care reform.
“We can look to health care reform now to insure millions more people, which is clearly a good thing. But if we don’t include long-term services and supports in reform, all these people will still potentially get forced into nursing homes and other institutions as they age or have disabilities,” added Liston. “We need to be included in health reform NOW, not wait for another 40 years.”
Rallies and marches will occur across Montana in Missoula (12:00 PM @ Courthouse), Bozeman (12:00 PM @ Baucus’ office), Butte (12:00 PM @ Baucus’ office), Helena (12:00 PM @ Baucus’ office), Kalispell (12:00 PM @ Courthouse), Great Falls (10:00 AM @ Baucus’ office), and Billings (12:00 PM @ Courthouse). Missoula marchers will begin with a rally at noon at the Missoula County Court House. Marchers in all sites will deliver keys to Sen. Baucus’ Montana offices to say “Don’t Throw Away the KEY to Long Term Care: Include the Community Choice Act in Health Care Reform and End the Institutional Bias.”
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