Action Report Day 3

ADAPT Continues to Protect Medicaid

By Allison Donald
September 26, 2017- National ADAPT took the streets for a third consecutive day with the understanding that even after the failure of the Graham-Cassidy bill, there is still more work to be done to ensure that this bill stays dead.

 

National ADAPT returned to the Hart Senate building to confront the Graham (R-S.C., Cassidy (R-La.), Heller (R-Nev.), Johnson (R-Wisc.) the coauthors of this bill.  Each team was dispatched to a Senators office.  Our mission was simple tell our stories and how the cuts to Medicaid would affect our lives as people with disabilities.  

The red team members crowded into Johnsons’ office and began to tell their stories and talk about the impact these cuts will have on their.  The staffers were so impressed and moved by the stories that they set up a meeting for later this evening that will be attended by Marilee Adamski-Smith and Joseph Adamski-Smith (Wisconsin ADAPT) members.  The purple team was assigned to Lindsey Graham’s office.  As they were being escorted out of the office Lindsey Graham passes by surrounded by five bodyguards.  As he passed by, he looked over in the direction of the purple team and gave them a smirk.  

The orange team was assigned to Heller and that went off without incident but they were escorted out after the second warning about arrest.  

I found myself on the blue team and in Senator Bill Cassidy’s office.  Denise McMullen-Powell was day leader so as she began to yell her story to staffers and so did I. As we were being threatened with arrests Denise grabbed the hand sanitizer off the Senator's desk and ask each of us “if we want to wash our hands to get the stench of this office off of us.”  Each person received a small amount of sanitizer while they were sitting in the office.

After leaving the Hart building we all regrouped and marched to the Upper Senate Park where Senator Bob Casey’s (D-PA.) held a press conference on healthcare.  He thanked every person in the park.  

“If it were not for the efforts of people with disabilities we would not have made it to the edge of victory in this fight for healthcare," said Sen. Casey, "but we can’t stop, because they (Republicans) won’t stop.”  

Our next stop was the Health and Human Services to confront Thomas E. Price.  He is the Health and Human services secretary.  The Department of Health and Human Services is the federal agency most directly responsible for ensuring that Americans with disabilities who need long term supports and services receive them in the most integrated setting.

 

The police placed barricades in front of the entrance of the building to prevent us from entering the building. In true ADAPT style we blocked the doors.  The stand- off began and so did the endless chant “Just like a nursing, you can’t get out.”  Elaine Sabol, nicknamed Spitfire, was determined to get her eighty-forth arrest.  She climbed out of her chair and started scooting under the barricades while her ADAPT family chanted, “go spit”.  

The standoff between ADAPT and the building security lasted eight hours.  Orange team leader Scott Nance capped off our visit to the Health and Human Services building by taping the signs to the windows around the building.  

Even though we have won the battle, the war for life and liberty for people with disabilities continues.  National ADAPT will be on Capitol Hill to as ask our Senators to support and cosponsor the Disability Integration Act (HR2472) (S 910).

Free Our People!