President Obama says that rising health care costs are an imminent threat to our economy and that any reform must reduce these long-term costs. Rapidly escalating health care costs are crushing family, business, and government budgets.
Obama wants to “make health care more affordable by increasing competition, providing more choices and keeping insurance companies honest.”
“Choice” is a big part of the proposed health care reform plan. It just so happens that an important bill that has been introduced in both Congress and Senate also includes that word. On March 24, 2009 Representative Danny Davis and Senator Tom Harkin introduced the Community Choice Act (CCA) in Congress.
The Community Choice Act would allow Medicaid-eligible Americans with significant disabilities the choice of living in their community, rather than having to live in a nursing home or other institution.
Chances of the CCA bills successfully making their way through Congress on their own are slim. Chances of including CCA in health care reform are probably even slimmer. The Obama administration has refused to even consider including it in any health care reform plan.
According to Obama, health care reform is about improving choice and lowering costs. Why can’t Obama and Congress see the trees through the forest?
About 1.7 million elderly and disabled people receive care in approximately 17,000 nursing homes across the United States. Anywhere from 10-40% of these people do not need to live there according to the 2006 book “Aging” by Harry R. Moody.
It costs approximately $67,000 per year to keep a person in a nursing home. On the other hand, home and community based services only costs about $21,000 per year. If 10% of 1.7 million nursing home residents could choose to live at home, it would save taxpayers approximately $8 billion a year. If 40% of these people could choose to live at home it would save about $31 billion a year.
You’d have to be foolish to not see that any health care reform package is incomplete if it does not include the Community Choice Act.
Wanted for Crimes Against the Disabled Community – The Harrisburg Gang of 30
August 4th, 2009The Harrisburg Gang of 30
The 30 Pennsylvania Republican Senators listed below continue to use the disabled community as political pawns. These Pennsylvania Senators are hard set on making deep cuts to key programs that would force more disabled people out of their homes and into nursing homes.
Western PA ADAPT accuses these Senators of crimes against the disabled community. Cutting vital human service programs is fiscally and morally irresponsible. The plain truth of the matter is that receiving these services is a matter of life and death to some disabled Pennsylvanians.
Go to the Web sites of these Pennsylvania Senators and visit, write, call or E-mail them. Let them know that you want them to make sure that any approved state budget must FUND PEOPLE FIRST.
Western PA ADAPT is the local chapter of a National Grassroots Disability Rights organization. ADAPT fights so people with disabilities can live in the community with real supports instead of being locked away in nursing homes and other institutions.
(Senators marked with an * above represent districts in Western Pennsylvania covered by Western PA ADAPT, ADAPT of Erie, PA, and Southwestern PA ADAPT.)
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