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PDFNSCIA chapter leaders will join United Spinal Association in Washington, D.C. on June 25-26 for Roll on Capitol Hill, to directly express to legislators the need for greater access to health care, wheelchairs, and policymakers — critical to the health and well-being of individuals with disabilities.
Roll on Capitol Hill is in response to serious challenges by legislators to the equal rights ensured to people with disabilities by the 22-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We will not sit idle while policies are created that directly impact our lives. Our motto is ‘do nothing about us, without us’ and we plan to drive that message home at Roll on Capitol Hill,” said Lex Frieden, United Spinal chairman of the board.
“We will not merely be there to complain. We will also share viable alternatives to misguided policies that keep people with disabilities institutionalized. We must ensure their rightful place in their communities, so that they have the opportunity to lead more independent and productive lives,” said Joseph Isaacs, United Spinal VP of Public Policy.
United Spinal members are concerned about funding cutbacks and new managed care programs that threaten access to community-based services under Medicaid, as well as restrictive Medicare policies that arbitrarily limit access to wheelchairs and therapies critical to their health.
“Members of the disability community can play a vital part in shaping public policy on Capitol Hill, as well as the state and local level,” said Paul J. Tobin, United Spinal president and CEO.
Roll on Capitol Hill participants will have the opportunity to speak directly with legislators and their staffs to voice their concerns on disability-related policies.
United Spinal’s advocacy efforts during Roll on Capitol Hill will focus on:
• Maintaining civil rights protection for people with disabilities
• Fighting serious threats from Capitol Hill to cut Medicaid-supported home care services
• Ensuring Medicare adequately funds rehabilitation and appropriate wheelchairs
• Ensuring Medicare adequately funds medical equipment used by SCI/D community, such as catheters
• Ensuring adequate coverage of prescription drugs
• Eliminating the Cap on rehab payments for Medicare beneficiaries
Roll on Capitol Hill will begin with a legislative policy conference on June 25, with speakers such as:
• The Honorable Kathleen Martinez, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Office of Disability Employment Policy
• Ellen Nissenbaum, Sr. Vice President for Government Affairs at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
June 26 will be devoted to Congressional visits and will conclude with an awards reception in the Cannon Caucus Room, 345 House Cannon Building
• Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) will receive the James J. Peter’s Disability Champion Award.
• Congressman John Carter (R-31st TX) will receive the VetsFirst Bronze Star Award.
• Congressman James Langevin (D-2nd RI) will receive with the Junius Kellogg Outstanding Congressional Leadership Award.
My dad had an accident March of this year that left him immobile. His primary care physician decided to discharge him from his practice stating that since he had the accident he has wanted to tell me to find him another PCP. I was shocked and hurt at the same time. Three days after he told me that I should find someone else to see my dad I get a letter in the mail stating that the reason for discharge is because of missed appointment. My dad missed ONE appointment the 8 month period he has been seeing him and that was because my dad was in the hospital getting an emergency angioplasty for which I gave notice to his office the day before his appointment–a day after the procedure.
I can’t understand his lack of caring for a fellow human being. He said he’d give us 30 days to find another PCP but decided not to extend home health care services for my dad who had just been released from the hospital with pressure soars he obtained at the skilled nursing home. His Office Mgr cited that it was day 29 and they didn’t have to extend it. I much would have had him tell me that his office is not prepared to see anyone in a wheelchair or a stretcher which was how my dad had to make his visit to his office had he not discharged my dad. How can a doctor discharge a patient he has not seen since February–my dad’s last appointment with him, right before his next appointment the 21st day of May of this year? My dad had been hospitalized for 2 weeks following the 2 decompressions and fracture he obtained in his cervical. He then spent 3 weeks in acute rehabilitation. Then it was recommended that he go to a skilled nursing home for 20 days–which he did but for less than a week due to having developed sepsis and his blood pressure having dropped because of the sepsis.
Every hotel, restaurant, beauty salon, or any kind of business open to the public should make their establishment wheelchair and handicap friendly by law. If anyone thinks that a business should be exempt because they don’t have a handicap clientele has got to be out of their mind. Business are to prepare for fires and be up to building code not “expecting” to have a fire, but in the event that they do. Likewise, legislators should create legislation mandating businesses to be handicap accessible and able to provide assistance to the immobile whether they expect to serve this special population or not.