Community Now! in Washington D.C.

[Guest guest]

Community Now! board members and friends are in Washington, D.C.

this week to protest Budget Cuts to Medicaid with National ADAPT.

Pre-action 2012 statement http://www.adapt.org/main.preactionstatementspring2012

ADAPT Action Report

http://www.adapt.org/freeourpeople/2012/report01.php

ADAPT: My Medicaid

Matters!

By Tim

Wheat, Boulder

ADAPT

Activists have arrived at the Capitol Hill Holiday Inn for three days

of direct action to reinforce the importance of Medicaid. For years ADAPT has

had success struggling to reform Medicaid with positive and effective change.

ADAPT created Money Follows the Person, the Community First Choice Option, The

Community Choice Act and ADAPT has continued to work to end the Medicaid

institutional bias; but now ADAPT is in a position of defending the federal

program from unwise and harmful cuts.

" The public presence of advocates for Medicare and Social

Security is extremely visible, but the voice of people with disabilities who

need Medicaid services has been often overshadowed at the federal level, "

said Bob Kafka of ADAPT of Texas.

" We are here to make it plain to Congress and the administration that we

want action, not just words. "

ADAPT demands that some common-sense principles are used to guide

Medicaid policy: Expand the use of community-based services, demedicalize

services, expand consumer directed service options and reorganize Medicaid

services to eliminate wasteful bureaucracy. All of the ADAPT demands not only

help to make the program cost less, they also make Medicaid more efficient and

effective.

" Cutting or changing Medicaid without thoughtful reform has very

real life or death consequences for people with disabilities and people who are

aging who live on fixed incomes that are significantly below the poverty

level, " said Marsha Katz of Montana ADAPT. " Washington should be putting our tax dollars

into cost-saving community based services, not costly nursing homes and

institutions. The time has come to get real about how we spend Medicaid

dollars. Medicaid really does matter. "

Follow what ADAPT is doing in Washington DC

at the ADAPT Action Report.

The ADAPT Action Report is organized to let you follow the ADAPT

Action in Washington DC. This year the direct-action group will

use video phones to upload video on YouTube.com. The idea is to show the

hard-work and exciting in-your-face advocacy of ADAPT. There is nothing like

the experience of an ADAPT Action, but if you cannot be in Washington, the ADAPT Action Report will try

to capture some of the feel of being there.

Follow the Action on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NationalADAPT.

Look for Twitter photos: http://twitpic.com/photos/NationalADAPT.

If you don't have a Twitter account; follow the action on the adapt

site with a " Twitter Feed. " http://www.adapt.org/twitter#twitterfeed.

Action information on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NationalADAPT

Follow this link for the YouTube action: http://www.youtube.com/ADAPTvideo

The Action Reports are news of the day with photos of the ADAPT

activists in action. The ADAPT Action Blog is so you may have first-hand

accounts from people involved in the ADAPT Action. News releases are collected

in the news section and there is a direct link to the photos by Tom Olin of the

Action and a link to activists uploading video from the action on YouTube.