The Disabled Fight for Health Care

Protester: No cuts to Medicaid!
News: These are protestors in front of
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's office.
Many of whom are in wheelchairs.
News: They’re protesting the Medicaid cuts
in the Republican health-care bill.
News Clip: President Trump and Republicans in Congress
are proposing huge cuts to Medicaid.
News Clip: The fifty year old federal safety net,
which right now covers about one in five Americans.
News Clip: People with disabilities may be the first to feel these cuts.
Stacey: My attendants help me do everything.
Getting out of bed and toileting.
And getting ready for the day.
That’s all funded through Medicaid.
Stacey: Hi Corwin, this is Stacey with accommodations.
Stacey: I am able to work right now 40 hours a week,
but that’s possible because I have attendant support.
News: Medicaid’s budget has been growing in recent years.
It now makes up almost 10% of federal spending.
News: The largest savings in the Senate’s health-care proposal
would come from reductions in Medicaid spending.
News: Many Republicans say slowing the growth of Medicaid
is crucial to saving it.
Medicaid is a welfare program.
Its primarily designed for the indigent elderly,
the disabled, the blind, and children.
Obamacare expanded the pool of Medicaid recipients
beyond its original intentions.
Senator Patrick Toomey: We have a provision
that very slightly slows down the rate at
which Medicaid will continue to grow
so that this is actually a sustainable program.
I think it’s very reasonable.
News: Entitlement reform has been the holy grail for Republicans for a generation.
Paul Ryan: So Medicaid, sending it back to the states,
capping its growth rate.
We’ve been dreaming of this
since I’ve been around.
Since you and I were drinking at a keg, you know?
Host: I was thinking about something else,
he was thinking about reforming Medicaid.
I was, I was.
Make no mistake, this is a repeal
and a replace of Obamacare.
Make no mistake about it.
It’s important to realize that this isn’t just
a rollback of Obamacare.
It's actually a deep cut of traditional medicaid programs
that cover disabled people and kids.
It caps spending over time,
and reduces it by up to 35% over the next two decades.
So you’re talking billions of dollars here.
And with that kind of cut,
states really only have a couple of options.
They can either raise taxes,
they can cut eligibility,
or they can cut the services they offer under medicaid.
And one of those services that they offer
is home services for disabled people.
Stacey: When I think about being 18 or 19 years old
it was really challenging because
that’s when I started to identify as queer or gay,
and my parents are evangelical Christians.
And so it was really hard to have space
to sort out what that means when my family is the
one that is providing my day to day care.
Stacey: Moving away, to me symbolized I’m worth it.
I mean, living on my own,
which is possible because of attendant supports,
means I can live the life I want.
And that was a big turning point to me.
If I was living with my family because
of care needs then my life would look very different.
News: Advocates say that these services are at risk
under Trump’s proposed budget because
they are considered optional.
News: Medicaid is required to pay
for hospital and nursing home care,
but not in-home therapy and support.
Mary Lou: Those services under the Medicaid program are optional,
they’re not required.
So when states are squeezed for money,
they are going to reduce those services
or end them all together.
And without that help they face institutionalization.
Mary Lou: In the 70’s and 80’s Medicaid began to be used
to provide services in the community rather than institutions.
So that people could have control over their lives.
Mary Lou: The fear now is that
this is a tremendous loss of hard won gains
by the disability rights movement over the last four decades.
News: On April 5th, 1977,
five to six hundred people in wheelchairs, with walking canes
and hearing aides, stormed the regional office
of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco.
Dennis Billups : I lived in this building,
ate, slept, in this building for two weeks.
Fighting for the rights of disabled persons
to have an independent life.
News: Their purpose, to stop discrimination
against the disabled in what will become the
longest occupation of a federal building in U.S. history.
Judy Huemann: For many disabled people,
it was the first time that we had really come together
felt our power, and recognized that we had a right to equality.
News: Two weeks passed.
The deadlock continues.
The Black Panthers send in cold sandwiches.
Others bring in mattresses and a portable shower.
Judy Huemann: We will no longer allow the government
to oppress disabled individuals.
We want the law enforced.
We want no more segregation.
We will accept no more discussion of segregation.
And I would appreciate it
if you would stop shaking your head in agreement
when I don’t think you understand what we are talking about.
His shaking his head in agreement,
I really felt symbolized a lot of people shaking
their head saying ‘I understand’ when they didn’t.
News: Tonight 35 million Americans
are no longer second class citizens.
What is being called a bill of rights
for all of this country’s handicapped has finally
been signed by HEW Secretary Joseph Califano.
Judy Huemann: This particular point in time
demonstrated that we should not be looked
at as object of charity and cure.
We wanted the rights like everyone else
and still do.
We are a part of the whole.
We don’t want to be excluded anymore,
and healthcare is pivotal to that.
Crowd: No cuts, caps!
Tammy Duckworth: The America that I love,
the America that I defended,
we don’t leave people behind.
We don’t say that you don’t get a chance
at your American dream just because you’re different.
No cuts, no caps, to Medicaid.
Tammy Duckworth: I was flying a mission
just north of Baghdad when my Blackhawk was hit
by a rocket propelled grenade,
which essentially exploded in my lap.
It vaporized my right leg on impact
and amputated my left
and took off the back of my right arm.
And I spent the next thirteen months at the hospital
learning to live my life all over again.
I think I definitely have
a significant insight that I can probably
safely say that none of my colleagues in the Senate have.
Those home health care workers are everything
for someone who may need a little help getting
dressed, who may need a little help with medication,
getting out the door, so that they can live
those full productive lives.
Protester: About fifty of us got arrested today.
We have been here waiting for them to come out.
Stacey: Medicaid paid for my shower today,
made it so I was able to eat breakfast,
helped me put on my clothes.
I breathe because of Medicaid, my ventilator.
I move through the world because of a wheelchair funded by Medicaid.
Stacey: Medicaid touches everything in my life.
It makes everything possible.
It’s not just health care,
but it’s really about my ability to participate in society
is because of Medicaid programs.

The Disabled Fight for Health Care

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