ADAPT Delivers Letter to President Obama

When President Barack Obama visited Denver, Colorado on September 27, 2011, ADAPT was there with an important message for him.

President Obama chose Denver's Lincoln High School as the place to give remarks on the American Jobs Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation now before Congress, designed to put more Americans back into the workforce.

The President used the state of Lincoln High School's science labs as an example of what this bill could do, saying that those labs were built back in the 1960's. "The American Jobs Act", he stated, "will repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools. It will put people to work right now fixing roofs and windows; installing science labs and high-speed Internet in classrooms all across this country. It would put teachers back into the classroom where they belong."

I was one of the ADAPT members seated in the front row, less than a yard away from President Obama, and we were very concerned. What the President did not mention in his remarks that Tuesday afternoon was that the American Jobs Act would be paid for by a number of cost saving mechanisms, including making "modest adjustments" to Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid, in particular, has been targeted for huge cuts in order to reduce the deficit.

There is an institutional bias in Medicaid where institutional care is a federally mandated entitlement while home and community-based care is optional. During budget crises, optional services are often the first cut, forcing people with disabilities into costly institutions.

ADAPT's message to Obama was clear: Arbitrary cuts to Medicaid will cost people with disabilities their freedom and eliminate vital jobs. Why? Because millions of people with disabilities depend on Medicaid services to remain at home in their communities. Medicaid also provides jobs for attendants and other support staff who care for us in our homes. They depend on those jobs to support their families. It makes no sense to pay for a jobs bill intended to put Americans back into the workforce by cutting a program that provides jobs and that keeps people at home, thereby saving states money.

After his remarks, President Obama went through the crowd, greeting and shaking hands. He was very cordial to each of us ADAPT members and graciously accepted our letter indicating our concern about cuts to Medicaid and suggestions for real reform that would protect our freedom, save money and jobs, and end the institutional bias. These solutions include: Expanding the use of community based services, demedicalizing services, expanding consumer directed options, and reorganizing Medicaid services to eliminate wasteful bureaucracy.