By Allison Donald
Monday September 25, 2017- After fifteen hours, endless chanting, one hundred and nineteen national ADAPT members arrested and defections from Republicans Cruz (Texas) McCain (Arizona), Collins (Maine), Paul (Kentucky), and Murkowski (Alaska) the Graham-Cassidy bill did not have enough votes to be brought to the floor for a vote.
The bill crafted by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), Dean Heller (R-NV.), and Ron Johnson (R-WI.), essentially turns control of the healthcare markets over to the states. Rather than funding Medicaid and subsidies directly, that money would be put into a block grant that a state could use to develop any healthcare system it wants.
The bill would also allow states to opt out of many ACA regulations.
This bill is a direct attack on the life and liberties of people with disabilities on many fronts. Graham-Cassidy does not fully cover all pre-existing conditions. The bill would also effectively put a cap on long term supports and services allowing states the choice to pick and choose which community based services they are going to provide.
Tennessee would be even more vulnerable to subpar healthcare, because the state did not choose to participate in Medicaid expansion. If block grants became a reality the already stressed long term support system in Tennessee will be stressed and people will end up on waiting list and receive inadequate care both in the home or community.
At 6:00 am members of National ADAPT were lined up at the front and back entrances of the Hart Senate building waiting for the doors to open, because we were going to attend the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the Graham-Cassidy bill at 2:00pm. National ADAPT two-hundred strong settled into the building, but the overflow of people caused the line to extend all the way into the Dirksen building.
As other groups like Planned Parenthood and The Arc began filing into the hallway of the second floor the police officers’ on the scene began to place chairs in the committee room limiting access to only seven wheelchairs in the meeting space.
“This is unconscionable," said Bruce Darling of Rochester ADAPT. "These people want to get in there to hear what they are going to do to Medicaid and how they are going to take away the things that underpin our life and liberty.”
ADAPT members had taken over the second floor inside the Hart Senate building chanting in support of their nineteen sisters and brothers who had gotten into the hearing for the Graham-Cassidy bill. The chanting lasted for hours and even when the gavel dropped to begin the hearing and continued until they were escorted out by the police.
As people were passing us through the halls they were high fiving us and calling us heroes.
We are not heroes. This victory today was about the people putting themselves on the line in the pursuit of life, liberty, and healthcare justice for all Americans not just people with disabilities.
Free Our People Y’all!
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