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| Not Dead Yet! |
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"Governors like Sundquist who choose to ignore the cost effectiveness and rightness of home and community based services, and instead continue to sentence their citizens to death in nursing homes, leave us with only one solution - federal legislation that guarantees choice for all Americans. We'll just have to go to another level," concluded Michael Auberger, national ADAPT organizer.
ADAPT's legislation, H. R. 2020, also known as the Medicaid Community Attendant Services Act of 1997 or MiCASA (Spanish for My House), would set minimum standards for all the states. H. R. 2020 is co-sponsored by Minority Leader Richard Gephardt and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. It currently has 62 additional co-sponsors, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and allows citizens to choose home and community based services over nursing homes. Despite its broad bipartisan support, the Clinton Administration has yet to endorse H. R. 2020. Tennessee Native Son, Vice President Al Gore, was invited to address the disability community in Memphis, but refused to meet with ADAPT to discuss the issues. Gore hails from the nation's First Worst state in investing tax dollars in institutionalizing persons with disabilities, young and old, rather than offering them the choice to live with needed services in their own homes.
"I don't understand how Vice President Gore can sleep at night knowing about all the persons trapped and dying in Tennessee nursing homes. He hasn't lifted a finger to help us. Is he another Sundquist?" asked Dawn Russell of Memphis.
"Another influential Tennessean, Nancy Ann Min DeParle, Administrator of HCFA (Health Care Financing Adminstration) needs to take a strong public position in favor of H. R. 2020. She must help stop the warehousing and deaths of men, women, and children with disabilities in the nation's nursing homes and other institutions." added Bob Liston, an ADAPT organizer from Michigan.
Contact:
Marsha Katz
- (313) 815-4536 Room 312
Jennifer Burnett
- phone: (412) 860-3715
ADAPT of Texas: (512) 442-0252
adapt@adapt.org
News Release Page A listing of recent ADAPT News Releases
The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org
MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency
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