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Contact:
Mike Auberger : (303) 733-9324
Janine Bertram-Kemp: (202) 342-9439
Jennifer Burnett: (717) 335-3235
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- S. 1935, The Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA) was introduced today by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and co-sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA).MiCASSA will affect more than 2 million Americans who are segregated from society by an outdated Medicaid law that forces them into nursing homes and other institutions. The legislation will reform Medicaid's entitlement to nursing homes and allow people the choice of receiving services in their own homes and communities.
In 1998 Medicaid spent $44 billion tax dollars to warehouse people with disabilities of all ages in nursing homes and other institutions, reports the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the federal agency that oversees the Medicaid program. Medicaid spent only $14 billion the same year on home and community-based services, or just 25% of it's total long-term care expenditures. According to data gathered by the University of California San Francisco's Disability Statistics Center, the average yearly Medicaid expenditure for a person using community-based services is $7,276, compared to a taxpayer cost of $23,225 for a person receiving Medicaid services in a nursing home.
MiCASSA is the result of years of work by ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights group with many members who have been locked away in nursing homes and other institutions. Last week, more than 200 ADAPT protesters were arrested in demonstrations in Columbus, Ohio, one state in which the track record on home and community based services falls considerably short of the national average.
ADAPT was successful in getting their Medicaid reform bill introduced by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) in the 105th Congress, where it enjoyed bi-partisan support of 77 co-sponsors, and was backed by over 400 organizations across the nation. Congressional hearings were held on the legislation in March 1998, but the session ended before the bill passed.
"ADAPT's goal is to reform the institutionally biased Medicaid long term care system by giving people with disabilities a real choice to live in the community. Nobody should be forced into a nursing home in the 21st century because of a lack of options, " said ADAPT organizer Bob Kafka. "We are excited that Senators Harkin and Specter have shown the commitment of the 106th Congress by introducing MiCASSA." The bill, he said, kicks off ADAPT's Real Choice in the New Millennium campaign, which is about engaging Congress and the Presidential Campaign 2000 in the debate about community-based, Medicaid funded long term services and support as a real choice.
ADAPT of Tennessee's "On-Line" press package
Recent news articles on long-term care in Tennessee, ADAPT, and nursing homes.
A summary of MiCASSA (S. 1935)
ADAPT of Texas: (512) 442-0252
adapt@adapt.org
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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