ADAPT takes on DC #street action!

For Immediate Release

September 20, 2011


Contact:

Janine Bertram (503)622-6387
Bruce Darling (585) 370-6690
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504


ADAPT DEMANDS SUPER COMMITTEE'S REPUBLICAN SENATORS STEP UP ON MEDICAID
REFORM

Washington, DC --- Building on protests yesterday at the White House and
the Congressional offices of Republican Representatives Jeb Hensarling
(R-Texas) and Dave Camp (R-Michigan), the national disability rights group
ADAPT is now at the Senate offices in the U.S. Capitol, demanding that two
Super Committee Senators, Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) and Patrick J. Toomey
(R-Pennsylvania) work with them to ensure that Medicaid dollars are
invested in cost-savingcommunity supports.  54 ADAPT activists were
arrested at the offices of Rep. Hensarling and Rep. Camp yesterday; 30
remained in custody as of mid-morning.

"People need to understand that reducing funds to the Medicaid system in
any way will result in providers closing and people losing services," said
Cassie James Holdsworth of Philadelphia ADAPT.  "President Obama said
yesterday that his proposed Medicaid will not result in loss of coverage
for people with disabilities and seniors.  But the fact is that even waste
reduction strategies such as privatized managed care result in major
disruption of services.  The Super Committee has to understand that we
need to get real about Medicaid.  Over the next decade, more and more
people will need it and we should be investing in cost saving services
like home and community based supports, and not just engage in slash and
burn cuts that willcost more in the long run."

"Community-based Medicaid services give us independence, health care, help
our families stay together, and provide jobs," said Tom Cagle of Ohio
ADAPT. "States have already made significant cuts to Medicaid. How many
more people with disabilities and seniors must lose our basic freedoms and
lives in order to have done our share?"

Lopeti Penimani, an ADAPT organizer from Phoenix, Arizona, pointed out
that states have already reduced or eliminated vital home care services
and forced seniors and people with disabilities into nursing facilities
against their will. "People are already experiencing reduced or eliminated
access to basic healthcare, including medications.  Jobs have already been
eliminated for home care and direct care workers."

ADAPT is demanding that the Senate Republicans on the Super Committee
agree to support the "millionaire's tax" assure that funding for Medicaid
is not capped and that it increases proportionate to need; eliminate
Medicaid's institutional bias as a part of the plan to address the
deficit; and provide ADAPT with an opportunity to testify before the
entire Super Committee regarding ADAPT's proposals for real Medicaid
reform and eliminating the institutional bias in the plan to address the
deficit.

Details of ADAPT's REAL Medicaid Reform proposals can be found on the
ADAPT website at http://www.adapt.org

###


ADAPT;S DEMANDS of the Republican Senate Members on the Super Committee

September 20, 2011

Congressional Republicans, including those on the Super Committee, believe
the burden of deficit reduction should only come from spending cuts to
critical programs, including Medicaid. They refuse to ask millionaires and
billionaires to pay their fair share to get our fiscal house in order and
reduce the deficit."

Fundamental questions need to be answered:

What is fair in such shared sacrifice?

Is a Medicaid home care recipient losing assistance with getting in and
out of bed and toileting the same as a hedge fund manager not being able
to buy yet another Ferrari?

Is a family who is forced to give up their disabled child because Medicaid
will no longer provide them with the supports they need the same as a
family who will now need to think twice about buying a luxury estate?

Is an elderly woman losing her home and family and being forced into a
nursing facility because she can no longer receive Medicaid attendant
services the same as an oil company not being able to write off the cost
of a private jet.

Is an attendant who just manages to make ends meet losing the income that
allows her to care for her family the same as a bank executive paying more
taxes on a multi-million dollar bonus?

ADAPT demands that the Congressional Senate Republicans on the Super
Committee agree to:


*  include a millionaire's tax in the deficit reduction plan toassure that
 Medicaid beneficiaries do not bear the burden of efforts to address the
 deficit;

*  maintain the integrity of the Medicaid program by assuring that the
 funding for Medicaid is not capped and increases proportionate to need;


*  eliminate Medicaid's institutional bias as a part of the plan to
 address the deficit; and

*  provide ADAPT with an opportunity to testify before the entire Super
 Committee regarding ADAPT's proposals for real Medicaid reform an
 deliminating the institutional bias in the plan to address the deficit.

 # # #
FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at http://www.adapt.org/

ALEC 8-4-11 Health Insurance Exchanges States in Charge

ALEC 8-4-11 Health Insurance Exchanges States in Charge

63649152-ALEC-8-4-11-Health-Insurance-Exchanges-States-in-Charge (1).pdf

http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/direct/63649152?extension=pdf&ft=1316498103&lt=1316501713&uahk=w5XNEBV472WUiRyp3RFaIB3+xlY

Cutting Kids’ Health Care Will Make Deficits Bigger: David Sirota

Posted on Jun 2, 2011

"It requires us to take the longer view of our deficit challenges, to see certain expenditures as investments in future savings and to remember that adage about “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

By David Sirota

In the name of curtailing deficits, politicians across the country are hacking away at programs that aim to make children healthier. In Congress, for example, House Republicans are spearheading a budget that eviscerates funding for food assistance and effectively defunds the wildly successful Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Similarly, from Texas to California, state lawmakers are chopping children’s health programs in the face of budget shortfalls. In all these initiatives, the rhetorical leitmotif is “fiscal responsibility.”

Like clockwork, this has set off the now-standard ideological debate over values, with liberals arguing that it’s immoral to deny health care to today’s kids and conservatives countering that it’s even more immoral to saddle the next generation with debt. But as highlighted by a new National Bureau of Economic Research report, both sides are ignoring the most important non-ideological fact: Any so-called “deficit reduction” plan that cuts child health programs is almost certain to increase deficits.

The NBER study compared British and American illness rates, controlling for both demographic differences and risk factors like smoking and drinking. It found that (a) we have “much higher” childhood illness rates than our British counterparts, (b) the transmission rate of childhood illnesses into poor health in adults is greater in America than in Britain, and therefore (c) “the origins of poorer adult health among older Americans compared to the English traces back right into the childhood years.” 

In other words, America’s broken private health care system allows kids’ medical afflictions to become far worse in adulthood than they become in Britain—a nation with a government-sponsored universal health care system. 

Remembering that experts say diabetes alone could be a $3 trillion health-cost time bomb in the United States, the NBER study’s underlying message should be clear: If we reduce our country’s minimal efforts to make kids healthier, we will be all but guaranteeing even more deficit-exploding medical problems down the line. 

Those problems, of course, are often more expensive to therapeutically treat in adults than to pre-emptively address in kids. That means any short-term savings achieved by cuts to children’s health care will likely be wiped out by much bigger costs as those less-healthy kids enter adulthood. And don’t forget: Those additional marginal costs are everyone’s concern because they often end up being paid by Medicare (aka taxpayers). 

The NBER study is quick to point out that access to children’s health insurance—universal in Britain, but not in America—may not be the “primary” factor in the discrepancy between our two nations’ health stats. However, it’s possible that health services for pregnant women are acutely involved. 

It’s also possible the results reflect not just differences in health services, but also larger incongruities in everything from food safety regulation to consumer products safety laws to environmental protection. This would suggest that it’s not only ignorant for self-described deficit hawks to cut children’s health programs, but also absurd for them to cite deficits as reason to cut enforcement of public-interest laws.

As obvious as these lessons may seem, appreciating their significance requires a serious attitudinal shift in America. It requires us to take the longer view of our deficit challenges, to see certain expenditures as investments in future savings and to remember that adage about “cutting off your nose to spite your face.” Because while we certainly can get the deficit under control, we cannot achieve such a goal by denying kids health care. 

Doing that will spite the whole country—and make the budget picture far worse.

David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book “Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now.” He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.

Banks under siege as protesters launch 'Emergency Operation' to highlight the Government's NHS cuts

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:44 PM on 28th May 2011

Activists protesting against NHS cuts yesterday occupied High Street banks across the country and transformed them into make-shift hospitals.Members of UK Uncut put on scrubs, bandages and fake blood in branches of Natwest, Barclays, Santander and HSBC. Some branches were said to have been forced to close.

Police made nine arests in connection with a protest in Manchester.

Branches in London, Plymouth, Brighton, Glasgow, Bristol, Oxford, Leeds Liverpool, Bournemouth, Ipswich and Dundee were targeted. 

The action was spearheaded by the campaigning group which was joined by trade unionists and other supporters.

Anti-cuts: A group of students make their presence felt laying down on the pavemen in front of a Police cordon outside a branch of HSBC in Camden Town, north London

Occupation: A melee ensues as a group of activists try to force their way past a police line in Camden

The national protest was intended to draw attention to the banks' role in creating the national deficit, which in turn has led to the proposals made for changes within the National Health Service.

 

More...

• No going back: Andrew Lansley warns he would rather quit than abandon his health reforms
• Clegg ignites Tory mutiny on health: Don't let him derail on NHS reforms, MPs urged

Activists dressed in doctors' coats and armed with fake blood had been plotting to enter 35 banks across the UK and set up mock hospitals and 'operating theatres'. 


However, some were forced to stage their protests on the streets outside when branches were closed or police lined up to keep them out.

In Camden, north London close to 100 protesters staged actions outside three banks in Camden and held a mock trial of the health secretary, Andrew Landsley.

A protester dressed as the MP was put in the stocks and pelted with tomatoes.

Barclays, HSBC and Natwest were all targeted in Camden - at Natwest protesters forced their way past a police line to gain entry to the bank.

Support: UK Uncut helped organise the protests which are against the Government's impending NHS cuts

You can bank on us: The protesters are halted by police as they target another bank in Camden

Protesters outside a branch of HSBC in Newcastle were joined by the musician and activist Billy Bragg, who addressed them by megaphone.

While in Brixton one group managed to enter a Natwest bank and stage their planned theatrical protest.

'The NHS did not cause the financial crisis – the banks did and are continuing to make billions in profits. And yet it is the NHS which is being cut,' said Candy Udwin of the Camden Keep Our NHS Public campaign, which took part.

'Here in Camden there are hundreds of jobs under threat and that is why protests like this are being strongly supported.'

Health worker and UK Uncut supporter Rosie Beech, 29, said: 'David Cameron said he wasn't going to cut the NHS. He lied.

'50,000 NHS staff will lose their jobs, whilst the taxpayer continues to subsidise the banks.

No entry: Activists, some of whom wore hospital scrubs, try to make their way past police and into a branch of Natwest in Camden

Flashpoint: Protesters clash with police as they attempt to gain entry to the bank

'Why is the Government cutting the NHS and privatising what's left rather than forcing our broken banking system to pay up?

Dubbed 'The Emergency Operation', the day of protests is the first big action organised by UK Uncut since the arrests of 145 protesters during a sit-in at Fortnum and Mason in London on 26 March, when more than 250,000 people who took to the streets to protest against government spending cuts.

UK Uncut has staged a series of campaigns against tax avoidance and public spending reductions since it was formed in October.

A Barclays spokesman said: 'We are aware of the protests and our priority is the safety of our customers and colleagues and to ensure that the branches can continue to operate wherever possible.'

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391822/Banks-siege-anti-cuts-protesters-rally-support-NHS.html#ixzz1NxiZE0WQ

Anti-cuts groups descend on banks in NHS prot: Guardian

Branches occupied or picketed in day of action spearheaded by UK Uncut and unions

Police struggle with activists outside the NatWest bank in Camden Town, London, during a protest against NHS spending cuts. Photograph: Ray Tang / Rex Features

 

Protesters have been holding demonstrations outside high street banks around the UK and have succeeded in occupying a number of branches in the biggest direct action to date against proposed changes to the NHS. The national protest, designed to draw attention to the banks' role in creating the deficit, is being spearheaded by the anti-austerity campaigning group UK Uncut, which has been were joined by trade unionists and others. Activists dressed in doctors' coats and armed with fake blood had planned to enter branches and set up mock hospitals and "operating theatres". Instead they mostly staged their protests on the streets outside when branches were closed or police kept them out. After assembling shortly before midday in London, close to 100 protesters staged actions outside three banks in Camden and held a mock trial of the health secretary, Andrew Lansley. Other groups were able to enter a Natwest bank in Brixton and a branch of RBS in Islington and stage protests inside. "The NHS did not cause the financial crisis – the banks did and are continuing to make billions in profits. And yet it is the NHS which is being cut," said Candy Udwin of the Camden Keep Our NHS Public campaign, which took part in north London.

"Here in Camden there are hundreds of jobs under threat and that is why protests like this are being strongly supported."

Activists said they had occupied a number of banks in Brighton while actions also took place in Plymouth, Oxford, Leeds Liverpool, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Ipswich, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. Protesters outside a branch of HSBC in Newcastle were joined by the musician and activist Billy Bragg, who addressed them by megaphone. Other high-profile supporters included the comedian Josie Long who protested at Homerton hospital in Hackney, east London. As well as banks, UK Uncut activists returned to branches of companies they had targetted in the past, including a branch of Vodafone in London and a Topshop in Cardiff. The only reports of arrests were in Manchester, where nine protestors who entered a branch of Santander in Market street were arrested.

"The protest was entirely peaceful and yet the police felt that they needed to do this. The public reaction to the police making the arrests was overwhelmingly negative" 

said David Hoyle, a UK Uncut activist who was outside the bank. Sarah Richardson, a social worker who took part in protests in Newcastle, said:

"This coalition government is breaking its election promises to protect the NHS – 50,000 staff are set to lose their jobs and vital services are being cut. Today we've shown that there are alternative to the cuts – the government could cut the massive subsidies to the banks that caused the crisis and use this to protect vital services."

In Oxford, Helen McCarthy said:

"I took part in today's protest because I wanted to show that I will not be deterred by the mass arrests that outrageously took place on the TUC march at Fortnum and Mason. It was simply an example of political policing to deter protesters from taking action against these brutal cuts. Instead of making us weaker we are just growing bigger and stronger."

UK Uncut said that as many as 40 banks across the country were closed, sometimes with activists inside, adding that the reaction from bank staff had been good-natured. The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) had encouraged members to attend. Dubbed "the emergency operation", the day of protests is the first big action organised by UK Uncut since the arrests of 145 protesters during a sit-in at Fortnum and Mason in London on 26 March, when more than 250,000 people who took to the streets to protest against government spending cuts. UK Uncut has staged a series of campaigns against tax avoidance and public spending reductions since it was formed in October. A Barclays spokesman said:

We are aware of the protests and our priority is the safety of our customers and colleagues and to ensure that the branches can continue to operate wherever possible."

A NatWest spokesman added:

"We are aware of the protests and our priority is to minimise disruption to customers."

The Government denied the NHS budget was being cut and said it had in fact been protected from the spending cuts "needed to deal with the deficit."

"This government believes passionately in the NHS and is investing an extra £11.5 billion over the next four years, a sign of the commitment to protecting it for the future, so there is no excuse to cut back on services that patients need,"said a Department of Health spokesman.

"The plans to modernise the NHS will help to ensure that bureaucracy is cut and resources are reinvested into improving the quality of care for patients. Every penny saved from efficiencies, including savings of £1.7bn a year by 2014-15, will be reinvested into frontline services to improve quality for patients."

Police, Clergy, Hospitals Urge Gov Dayton To Veto Bills Kicking Poor Off Health Care

http://www.theuptake.org/2011/05/19/urging-dayton-to-veto-hhs-omnibus-bills/

On the heels of the passage of the HHS omnibus bills through the Minnesota House and Senate, stakeholders address the health care choice facing lawmakers and Governor Dayton in the final days of the 2011 legislative session. Speakers address the proposal within the HHS bill to cut 138,000 Minnesotans off health care, versus raising revenues in the state. Speaking:
Reverend Grant Stevensen, President, ISAIAH
Sara Crieger, CEO, St. Joseph’s Hospital
Dr. Philip Stoyke, Family Practice Physician, St. Paul
Greg Gentz, Officer, Minneapolis Police Department
Mike Proietti, Richfield resident

The real cost of the MN's social cuts! Shame on the GOP! and ALEC !!

St. Paul, MN, May 19, 2011. State Representative Erin Murphy, DFL, HD 64A attends a press conference of people seriously affected by proposed health care cuts. She comments on the social and fiscal impact of these actions.