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主頁 / 相冊 / Baltimore, Spring 1991 30
In the Spring of 1991, ADAPT went to Baltimore, home of Social Security and the Health Care Finance Administration. The first day we blocked all the entrances to the main Social Security Building at lunch. Then after several hours, we moved down and took over the main intersection in front of the complex. They had to build a road to let people out, and we dubbed it Wade's Way. The next day we targeted a different Social Security building in the complex where they handle disability determination. The last day we rode down to Washington DC and took over the Health and Human Services building on Independence. Our message for the week: Free Our People from nursing homes and other institutions.
- ADAPT (665)
Photo: A man [Mike Auberger] in a motorized wheelchair in blue ADAPT t-shirt and jeans, sits in the middle of a group of other people in wheelchairs. From left to right, they are unknown man with back to camera, woman in pink jacket and red skirt [Diane Coleman], man [Joe Carle] in dark sunglasses and sleeveless jacket, and man [Jim Parker] in white Bart Simpson t-shirt. Mike is holding a clipboard on his lap and reading something from it. - ADAPT (641)
DISCLOSURE JULY-AUGUST I991 From Coast To Coast ADAPT Battles For Home Attendant Care by C.I. Zander Photo by Tom Olin: Two protesters in wheelchairs curl forward with arms raised to their faces as police or security tip them back on their back wheels. The person in the front (possibly Barb Guthrie) has a bumper sticker on the side of the chair that reads "I support my country." Capiton reads: ADAPT protestors being removed from HHS entrance in April action. “Almost everywhere we go, we meet somebody who has a friend or relative who's disabled — a brother, a cousin, a father or mother. That's why people support us. That's why they believe in what we are doing." Danny Saenz of ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) was talking about the recent string of direct actions which has taken them from Baltimore to Washington to Dallas to Chicago and back to Washington again. ADAPT's primary issue: put Medicaid money into direct home attendant care of the disabled and get them out of nursing homes. ADAPT 's primary target: HHS Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan, also known as “Lonesome Louie" and “Dr. No" because whatever ADAPT asks for, he refuses. “All we want is a meeting. . ." “All we want is a meeting," says Saenz, who is from the Austin, Texas ADAPT chapter. “But he always finds some excuse.” Tom Olin of Tennessee Adapt adds: "When we were in Washington recently, we thought that we had a meeting with Sullivan. But HHS went back on their word. So we closed down their building." Adapt members blocked the exits of the Health and Human Services building and forced guards to close it down for two hours on June ll. Police were reluctant to make arrests not only because it is bad publicity for them to be seen carrying off the disabled but also because most police stations do not have adequate care facilities. Tuesday, June 11, may go down as the biggest day in ADAPT's history for more reasons than the shutting down of HHS. Members began early at the American Health Care Association Convention where Sullivan was scheduled to speak. AHCA is a particularly galling organization to ADAPT because it is a lobbyist for the nursing home industry which receives billions in federal and state money for healthcare that ADAPT leaders describe as "inadequate," “wasteful” and “sometimes criminal." ADAPT estimates that over 1.5 million disabled could be moved from nursing homes to attendant home care if the Medicaid benefits were the same or comparable. Getting To Sullivan Although many ADAPTers got into the Hyatt Hotel where the AHCA convention was being held, security forces were able to head them off and lock the auditorium where Sullivan was scheduled to speak. All except for one person. She was able to sneak in and got down to the front of the room in her wheelchair. When Sullivan started his lecture, she also began speaking and gesturing to the audience, asking why Sullivan supported the agenda of nursing homes instead of the agenda of the disabled themselves. Several security police carted her off but ADAPT had, once again gotten Sullivan's attention. Eventually, Sullivan snuck out of the hotel, reputedly through the back kitchen entrance. But, even then, several ADAPT members caught up with him at his expensive limo and shouted their demands for a meeting at him as he drove away. Then ADAPT moved over to the HHS building where they blocked entrances and closed doum the building for a few hours. As National People's Action had done on their April visit, a few people got past the guards to some upper floor offices. But, of course, Sullivan was “not there." To cap off the day, ADAPT met with Senator Kennedy's staff to talk about the proposed health care bill. “We called for a meeting when we were here before in April," says Olin. “But they said they didn't know who we were. So we told them to just watch the news on TV and they’d see us.” What Kennedy’s staff and many other Washingtonians saw on TV then were another two direct actions which included blocking the HHS parking lot and the busy Baltimore intersection in front of the Social Security and Health Care Funding Administration building. ADAPT members said they wanted to illustrate what happens when they are locked in nursing homes. “It’s the same kind of feeling —— you can't leave when you want to. You need my permission," said Mike Auberger of Denver's Atlantis Community afterwards. “I’m sympathetic. . ." "I'm sympathetic to all these folks not able to get home, but this is a really minor inconvenience compared to the inconveniences suffered by those in nursing homes," said protester Nate Butler. A Washington Post photo showed ADAPT members lying down in front of police cars in a scene reminiscent of civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s. Some federal workers were irritated but many expressed sympathy for ADAPT’s views. Other ADAPT actions this spring included cornering Sullivan in Chicago on May 14 and, again in Dallas on May 22 at the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities Conference. ln Dallas, according to the June issue of Incitement, ADAPT’s national newsletter: “(Sullivan) began his talk, and, slowly and silently, one by one, ADAPT members dropped to the floor and began crawling toward his podium, waving the proposed meeting dates in the air. Though he tried to ignore us, Sullivan stumbled over his words several times. in the end, a sea of bodies lay on the floor before him. . -" Sullivan's staff repeatedly says they won‘t meet with "radical" `groups`, but ADAPT leaders believe that this is just an excuse to avoid them. They note that Sullivan has plenty of time to meet with big money `groups` and lobbyists but that he ignores community-based `groups` whether they are "radical" or not. One of ADAPT's strongest arguments for reallocating Medicaid nursing home funds to a home attendant care system is financial. Leaders believe that, in the same way that health insurance administration costs eat up money that should go to the people who have the medical problems, nursing homes end up making large profits while the disabled suffer. Auberger says that nursing homes’ care costs are in the range of $30,000 to $60,000 a person a year but home care is in the $15,000-30,000 range. Auberger himself receives home care that averages about $2,000 a month. "Not only is it cost effective," he concludes, “it‘s the right to dignity and freedom of choice." The bottom line for ADAPT is the redirection of 25% of the $23 billion that Medicaid currently spends on nursing homes to community-based attendant services programs. While some states have adequate home care services, most do not. So ADAPT believes the primary change must come through the allotment of federal funds. “The nursing home industry is a billion-dollar industry — they give political contributions to politicians who protect their interests," says Lillibeth Navarro, an ADAPT member from California. “This is going to be a difficult struggle. But because our cause is right, because it touches practically everybody, we will prevail." For more information on ADAPT programs, call 303 733-9324 in Denver, or S12 4420252 in Austin, Texas. - ADAPT (666)
Looking into a crowd of ADAPT folks. Bob Kafka in center is talking through a microphone. Left of him is Chris Colsey with a headband, to Bob's right is Mike Auberger looking down, Bobby Thompson facing sideways, and Jane Embry. Directly behind Bob is Robert Reuter facing backwards, and another man from Chicago or Atlanta ? In the row behind them (L-R) Jimmy Small, Wayne Becker, Marilyn of Atlanta, Bernard Baker, and behind them other ADAPT members. In front on left Shel Trapp is facing the group at edge of picture, and Mike Ervin is facing forward. - ADAPT (644)
The Washington Post [Headline] The Disabled Protest for Aid [image] [image caption] Disabled people threw themselves from their wheelchairs and onto the ground in front of the Department of Health and Human Services yesterday to demand federal funding for home-care attendants. Story on Page C3. By Craig Herndon-The Washington Post - ADAPT (663)
THE WOODLAWN VILLAGER ©1984 6401 Dogwood Road Woodlawn, MD 21207 (301) 944-7465 Fax: 301-944-1989 Advertising Department: Al Triplett, Mgr. (301) 944-2978 7/1/91 [Headline] last month's protest One month ago, members of the American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT) aligned themselves wheelchair to wheelchair, crutches to canes, across Security Blvd. in front of the Social eSecurity complex. They were protesting. They did not want to raise your taxes. Their stand was not religious; not even political. They merely wanted our federal government to see just how strong their feelings were about the government allocating what they consider an excessive amount to nursing home care for their lot, not enough for home health care. They want their independence. They want to fend fore themselves. But they need financial help to make this happen. Suddenly a nation of people, mostly unaware of the situation, became totally aware. Hopefully, they thought, so would our government representatives, the people in charge of the fund distribution. For the part of one day, less than eight hours in and many of us were inconvenienced. Is there ever a protest, of any kind, when noose is inconvenienced? The police department was not caught unaware. They knew in advance of the pending protest, and the ensuing action. Do you know what they did? They practiced! They had people put in wheelchairs; they arrested them; they processed and jailed them. "We concluded," said Major Lawrence Schist, Area 1 Commander, "it would take 18 hours for us to arrest and process all the protestors." Logic won out. They chose a path of action that would actually take less time, free patrol cars to pursue their normal duties, aIlow the station help to handle emergency, as normal, calls. The police department simply re-routed traffic for several hours. How smart! I have been re-routed for road repairs in the past, for water main breaks, downed phone lines, unfortunate accidents. This was not something I had ever experienced before. My office is at the corner of Dogwood Rd. and Gwynn Oak Ave:, where all the traffic was being re-routed through. I sat in my car, on my parking lot, until an understanding, courteous driver let me in line. It took me about 30 minutes longer:than normal to get home. But I so admired the spunk of ADAPT, I didn't mind at all. I found myself sympathizing with these protestors in a cause I wasn't even am of until that day. There were no arrests. Noone was hurt. No stores were looted, no fires set. We were just inconvenienced for a part of one day. For their part, the police never complained about having to stand in the street and direct traffic all [text cuts off] - ADAPT (660)
This page continues the article from Image 653. Full text is available on 653 for easier reading. - ADAPT (661)
This page continues the article from Image 653. Full text is available on 653 for easier reading. - ADAPT (658)
[Headline] National Activism By Mike Boyd In following up on the letter from the President of the Survivors Advisory Council, published in the last edition of the Journal, members of the JMA Survivors Advisory Council went to Baltimore, April 27-May 2, 1991 to report on ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Pro-grams Today) and their action to secure what they define as one of the leading problems facing the seriously disabled, the services of "Attendant Care." In speaking with Diane Coleman, ADAPT organizer, attorney and friend, I developed a much greater appreciation for the dedication of ADAPT members and their fight to redirect existing federal funding to better assist the estimated 7.7 million people in the United States who require help on a daily basis. It is estimated that approximately half of these people are not getting the necessary support (World Institute on Disability). According to ADAPT, nursing home costs aver-age over $30,000 per citizen per year, while enabling individuals to live in their own homes with these services would cost approximately 25% of that figure, or $7,500 per year. This cost savings in dollars is incredible, but the difference in quality of living goes beyond any description in terms of what we are promised in the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Claude Holcomb, another ADAPT activist stated, 4'1 was in a nursing home for thirteen years. I had to fight to get out. It was the beginning of my life at 22." Many others traveled to the demonstrations from all over the United States to try and convince Louis Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services, that disability funding was being misspent at the expense of the very people it was intended to help. Three days of attempted negotiations at the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), Social Security Administration (SSA), and in Washington, D.C. produced national attention. ADAPT demonstrators blocked the entrances and exits of government buildings, shutting down the agencies in protest of what some said are anti-disabled policies. No arrests took place. Some contend that the overfund-ing of institutionalization benefit-ting private corporations and the underfunding of ATTENDANT SERVICES to assist PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES is a dramatic statement of the "Plantation System Mentality" that still exists in our nation's capitol and exploits the disabled and mars promises of equal rights. Nate Butler makes a profound point in an interview in Head-Stand, the publication of the Mary-land Head Injury Foundation: "The disability movement doesn't incorporate brain injuries and brain injured people don't like to be a part of the disability movement." The comment is an overgeneralization, but one that we need to address in our own search for equality and the promises of the American Dream. An injury to One is an injury to All, we need to band together." We certainly owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the ADAPT leadership acid their role 6n the ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, which has been described as the greatest piece of Disability Civil Rights legislation ever enacted. - ADAPT (648)
[Headline] ADAPT hits Baltimore to press nursing home issue with Sullivan In ADAPT's largest action yet on behalf of attendant services, more than 225 wheelchair activists rolled into Baltimore and Washington, D.C., at the end of April, where they seized control of two federal buildings and brought traffic to a standstill at Baltimore's busiest intersection at the height of the rush hour. Demonstrators had hoped to force a meeting with Dr. Louis Sullivan, secretary for Health and Human Resources, but as usual Sullivan refused to discuss ADAPT's demand that Medicaid monies be transferred from nursing home pro-grams to attendant services. On the first day of the action, demonstrators blocked the 44 entrances leading into a Social Security Administration building in Baltimore. Some four or five wheelchair pickets blocked each entrance until police started moving in at 3 p.m. "There was no way we could continue to block that many doors if they started hauling us away," ADAPT spokesman Wade Blank said. "So we announced we were heading back for our hotel. The cops were real pleased it ended that easily." It didn't, though. Instead of returning to the hotel, the 225 activists wheeled their way into a nearby busy intersection and brought traffic to a halt until 7 p.m., when the demonstrators decided to call it a night. It was three days before traffic got back to normal on those roads," Blank said. On the second day, ADAPT targeted another Social Security building, one that had only two entrances, although the parking lot held nearly 3,000 cars. While police officers in what appeared to be SWAT uniforms and riot gear watched, ADAPT blocked the two doors and refused to allow workers inside to leave the building. Some of the federal employees corn-plained that they had children to pick up and should be allowed to pass through the pickets. "Now you know how disabled people who are locked up in nursing homes feel," they were told. On the third day, ADAPT boarded buses and headed into Washington, D.C. where they set up pickets outside the Hubert H. Humphrey federal build-ing. A line of 225 wheelchair activists stretched from corner to corner in the street opposite the front of the building. Police countered by establishing a barrier of police cars in front of the building with officers filling the spaces between the cars to stop any attempt by ADAPT to rush the building. A signal was given and all 225 demonstrators started rolling toward the building. But when they reached the police barricade, the 225 pulled them-selves out of their chairs and began to crawl over the police cars, chanting: "We want Sullivan! We want Sullivan!" The police had earlier decided on a non-arrest strategy and while they were pondering a response, several of the activists sneaked around the lines and kryptonited the locks of the building doors which effectively knocked them out of commission. "The press went nuts," Blank said. At 6 p.m. ADAPT leaders explained their demands in a live news conference that was carried on all three of the network affiliates. "The nursing home industry knows now that it is going to have to take us seriously," Blank said. Blank said that many of the 225 demonstrators were residents of nursing homes. Others were unable to participate in the action because the homes told them they would be locked out if they participated in an anti-nursing home demonstration. - ADAPT (643)
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those the suppress." Fredrick Douglas, 1849 - ADAPT (646)
[Headline] Radical disabled activists resist 'warehousing' By MARY JOHNSON Special to the Guardian Baltimore-- The feisty disabled-rights activists of ADAPT have a new target. Having declared victory in the battle over access to public transit, they are applying their well-honed direct-action strategy to changing the U.S. policy of warehousing disabled people in nursing homes. The enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990 prompted the group to move on from their 8-year bus battle since the new law requires wheelchair lilts on all new buses. (The shift of targets has required a name change: formerly called American Disabled for Action on Public Transit, the group now makes its acronym stand for American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today.) Many question the Bush administration's commitment to disability rights under the disability rights act as long as disabled people are forced to live in nursing homes against their will. Despite the publicity last year surrounding Larry McAfee. the severely disabled Georgia man who sought court permission to end his life rather than live in a nursing home. the Bush administration has refused to examine the government policy of funding nursing-home stays over in-home assistance. In a news conference last May, the president would only say, "We ought to take a look at changing it." [Subheading] DIRECT-ACTION STRATEGY' "I wouldn't hold my breath." says Allan Bergman, United Cerebral Palsy's national deputy director for governmental activities. Even before the passage of the act, Bergman was interested in turning up the heat on the nursing home issue with what he called "a different kind of strategy." Nearly 300 severely disabled activists descended on this city during the last week-end in April to do just that. Many of them were among the group that shut down the Capitol Rotunda in March 1990 calling for passage of the disability rights law. On April 29 and 30, ADAPT surrounded the health care administration and Social Security offices here, at one point snarling rush-hour traffic at a nearby intersection for over an hour, and at another blocking an employee parking lot. forcing police to cut a fence and bulldoze a makeshift exit so workers could leave. There were no arrests, however. ADAPT turned its attention on May I to the Department of Health and Human Services offices in Washington, disrupting a press conference for Health Care Financing Administration head Gail Wilensky. Another culprit. as ADAPT sees it, is the nursing home industry's trade group, the American Health Care Association. ADAPT says the association has been able to convince the administration that Medicaid funds earmarked for the disabled should go to nursing homes instead of paying for vastly less expensive and more dignified in-home services. ADAPT organizer Mike Auberger believes it will take 3 to 4 years to organize enough people around the issue to see a change, but points out that the bus battle took 8 years. "This issue affects almost everyone who's disabled," he says, unlike the transit issue, which wasn't relevant to people who could afford their own transportation. "This cuts across all levels. Everybody can relate to needing to get up and get dressed." "The entire force of the disability rights community must he brought to bear on an effort to get a national attendant services program," says Charles Cam director of an independent living center in Massachusetts. Carr worries that ADAPT's agenda is too narrow and focuses only on people in wheelchairs: he believes things like interpreters for deaf people and readers for blind people should he pan of the definition of "attendant services." Still, what drives many in working on this issue is avoiding nursing homes. "Nobody wants to go into a nursing home. That should tell us something." says ADAPT's Wade Blank. "That's a real unity-builder." Medicaid's requirement that disability funds he used in institutions isn't written into the law. says attorney and ADAPT organizer Diane Coleman. Rather. she says, it's due to the American Health Care Association's lobbying efforts that the vast hulk of Medicaid and Medicare money is allotted to nursing homes. Last year people in this country shelled out over $46 billion for nursing home stays—half of that coming from either Medicare or Medicaid. The Long Term Care Campaign and other groups put the Lost or an average nursing home stay at between $30.000 and $60,000 a year. Yet disability groups. including the World Institute on Disability, say a disabled person living in their own home and paving an attendant for personal services like help with dressing, bathing and getting in and out of bed aced spend only about $15,000 a year. This is not for 24-hour attention, and it isn't for the services of a highly trained nurse. But. ADAPT organizer Wade Blank points to a Feb. 28 New England Journal of Medicine editorial, which noted that most people in nursing homes receive the equivalent of only 3 to 4 hours of care a day in the loon of simple personal assistance, not "nursing care." What ADAPT wants. they say. is simple: They want Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan to transfer $5 billion from the $23 billion in federal funds now going to nursing homes and direct it to a national "attendant services" program. Such a program would allow disabled people to receive assistance in their own homes rather than being forced into a nursing home because they need help with things like bathing, dressing and eating. Disabled rights activists are convinced that the medical approach to home care drives up prices and insist that disabled people need simple assistance, not nursing care. Activists therefore maintain that "attendant services" must allow disabled people to do their own hiring and firing and he in control of their own care, if they so choose. Sullivan has so far refused to meet with ADAPT, though they've followed him around the country, confronting him in Nashville. Tenn., in January and at his alma mater, Atlanta's Morehouse College, last fall. [Subheading] A $50 BILLION-A-YEAR INDUSTRY ADAPT representatives did meet with American Health Care Association Director Paul Willging in Denver a few months ago. Willging was frank in telling the group that the nursing home business was "a $50 billion-a-year industry." If ADAPT wanted to take money from them to fund attendant services. they'd oppose it. he said. "Right now attendant services are a matter of states' rights." says Coleman. Though some states have waivers from current Medicare rules to allow disabled people to receive services in their homes, the Health Care Financing Administration in recent years has granted fewer and fewer of these waivers. A coalition of disability and seniors groups in Tennessee, including Tennessee ADAPT, pressed the Tennessee Medicaid Commission recently to file a waiver request, but the group was turned down. A group in Mississippi pressed the Mississippi Medicaid Commission last fal to file a waiver request with the Health Care Financing Administration to start a tiny program for in-home service. They did, but the administration has denied the request three times—over the protests of the Mississippi congressional delegation. In November the delegation sent a letter to the administration objecting to the denial. "We are convinced." they wrote, "that a consumer-directed model is the kind of program we need to have in our state." Though ADAPT does not represent the entire disability rights movement. their [image] [image caption] After winning the 8-year battle for wheelchair lifts on its new buses, disability activists in ADAPT shifted their focus to target the government policy of funding nursing homes over cheaper and more dignified home care. [text continues] direct-action strategy has been hard to ignore. "I don't agree with their tactics," says Mike Yeager of Disability Focus. a public policy group. "they're real aggressive. But somebody has to he. There aren't really enough groups willing to make a loud noise." Shel Trapp of National People's Action. a group that does direct-action training. is impressed with ADAPT. "This movement mast not be as broad-reaching as the civil rights movement in terms of numbers," Trapp says, "but I think the accomplishments will ultimately equal those of the civil rights movement." ADAPT members say they've never been opposed to making noise. "Were not going away." promises ADAPT's Mark Johnson. "We're gonna win this one—sooner or later." For more information: ADAPT, 12 Broadway, Denver, Colo. 80203; (303) 733-9324. For coverage of the disability rights movement: The Disability Rag (monthly), P.O. Box 145, Louisville, Ky. (502) 459-5343. Mary Johnson is editor of The Disability Rag. [Boxed text] Small Press Center 20 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036 Free Readings at the Small Press Center Tues. April 9-1pm Writer Donna Ratajczak (Purgatory Pie Press) and poet Barbara Unger (Thorntrce Press) Tues. May 14 -1pm Sal Salasin (Another Chicago Press) and writer Hans Koning (Monthly Review Press) Tues. June 11-1pm Writer Coco Gordon (Water Mark Press) and author Grace Paley (The Feminist Press) These readings are also broadcast on WNYE (91.5 FM). Please call the Center at (212) 764-7021 for broadcast dates. Special Lectures Free Fri. April 26 — 6:30pm Slide Lecture — by the artist/printers of Purgatory Pic Press Fri. June 14 — 7:00pm Slide Lecture on Papermaking and Artists' Books by Coco Gordon from Water Mark Press Small Press Exhibits April — Purgatory Pie Press May — Monthly Review Press June — Water Mark Press For more information on all Small Press Events, please contact the Center at (212) 764-7021. The Center is open Monday to Thursday from 9 to 6pm and Friday from 9 to 5 pm — the Center is closed during July. - ADAPT (650)
"Power concedes nothing without a demand." Fredrick Douglass, 1849 - ADAPT (667)
[Headline] Disabled activists block off building 5/2/91 Washington (AP)- Disabled activists, including more than 100 in wheelchairs, blocked entrances to the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department on Wednesday to protest policies that they said favor nursing homes over home care. Some of the protesters discarded their wheelchairs and crutches and tried to get past a police line securing the building. Some crawled under parked police cars and tried to squeeze past the legs of officers. There were no arrests. The group American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT, wants the Medicaid program to redirect $5.5 billion to be spent on community-based attendant service programs. - ADAPT (664)
[Headline] Protesters advocate home care for disabled WASHINGTON (AP) Disabled activists, including more than 100 in wheelchairs, blocked entrances to the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department on Wednesday to protest policies they said favor nursing homes over home care. Some of the protesters discarded their wheelchairs and crutches and tried tog et past a police line securing the building. Some crawled under parked police cars and tried to squeeze past the legs of po- [Subheading] THE STARS AND STRIPES lice officers who stood in front of the en-trances. There were no arrests. "To people like myself, this is a life and death matter," said Lee Sanders of Houston, who crawled out of his wheel-chair and laid on the ground. "It's the difference between living in a nursing home and living at home." For most of the afternoon, access to the Hubert Humphrey Building was limited to underground tunnels that connect it with other buildings. Cars also were unable to leave the parking lot under the health department's headquarters building, just a couple of blocks from the Capitol. The approximately 175 protesters, organized by a group called American Dis-abled for Attendant Programs Today, or ADAPT, want the Medicaid program to redirect 25 percent of the $23 billion it currently spends on nursing homes. They want this amount; about $5.5 billion, to be spent on establishment of community-based attendant service programs that would give disabled people the chance to stay at home rather than enter a nursing home. "Not only is it cost effective, it's the right to dignity and freedom of choice," said Mike Auberger of Denver, a co-founder of ADAPT. He said 7.7 million Americans are in jeopardy of having to go to a nursing home a cost Medicaid would pay ---- because they can't afford a home-care attendant. Medicaid has a more restrictive policy in reimbursing for home care than for nursing home stays, he said. However, he noted, nursing home care costs.in the range of $30,000 to $60,000 a year, while attendant care costs $15,000 to $30,000. Gail Wilensky, head of the Health Care Financing Administration, which administers Medicaid, said many of the problems the group is angry about are not handled by the Medicaid program. Also, she said, some state Medicaid pro-grams do cover attendant and personal care-type services. States design and operate their own Medicaid programs under broad federal guidelines. - ADAPT (657)
A group of police stand between two police cars. They stare straight ahead, not looking down, with lips pursed, hands on hips. In the background more police are standing around by the HHS building. At the feet of the group in the front ADAPT protesters are crawling around the police officers' legs. One woman is on her side partially beneath a police car, a single above the knee amputee [Julie Nolan] is squeezing between two of the officers, the legs of another person are laid before them, and in the back a fourth person is between two other officers.