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D.C. sit-in protests Medicaid cuts

Published Oct 6, 2005 2:18 AM

Hundreds of activists with the disability rights group American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today [ADAPT] descended on Washington, D.C., Sept. 17-21 to protest Medicaid cuts and demand housing and personal care for disabled people. WW reporter Lou Paulsen interviewed Ed Hoffmans, 67, of Chicago, the elected coordinator of Chicago ADAPT and a long-time member of Workers World Party, about these activities.

WW: What were the main issues in the protest?


Police move in to arrest disabled activists.

EH: We were mainly protesting the planned cuts in Medicaid. In April, Congress passed a budget resolution that would cut $10 billion over five years. It’s not a binding resolution, but it shows what they intend.

Between 500 and 600 of us were there, 12 from Chicago. The largest delegation was from Kansas—they had 47. Most of us were wheelchair users.

On Sunday, Sept. 18, we marched 5 miles from the hotel to Sen. [Bill] Frist’s house and held a two-hour rally outside the fence. This was a record-setting longest march for ADAPT.

What kind of house is it?

It’s a big mansion! Then on Monday, the 19th, we committed civil disobedience, which was really the focus for the trip. We held sit-ins in the offices of the Senate and House leadership of both parties.

Which office were you in?

Senator Grassley’s [Charles Grassley, R-Iowa]. He was the only one who didn’t have people arrested, so we sat until the building closed and were arrested by Capitol Police on the charge of unlawful assembly. Just before we were arrested, we were chanting my favorite chant, which was, “I would rather go to jail than die in a nursing home.”

We were processed in a Senate hearing room—in fact, it was the room where Judge [John] Roberts had his confirmation hearing. The police didn’t treat us badly like they do with anti-war and anti-globalization protesters. But it took them 11 hours to process us. They started at 7:30 p.m. and we were done at 6:30 in the morning. But I enjoyed the experience of being there and our spirits were very high.

Was there much publicity?

We were on the front page of the Wash ington Post. One headline we saw read, “ADAPT storms Congress.”

On Tuesday, we went to the Depart ment of Health and Human Services for a rally in the morning. In the afternoon, some went to Virginia to speak with the director of housing about affordable and accessible housing for people coming out of nursing homes. We were ready to sit in his office if he didn’t talk to us, but he actually did.

On Wednesday we had a rally against the National Governors’ Association and they sent a spokesperson out to talk to us, though he wasn’t supplying us with very satisfactory results. That was on the issue of Medicaid, block grants to the states, and the cutbacks in services on the state level.

For example, in Tennessee [Frist’s home state—ed.] the state cut off a program that helped people on ventilators stay in their own homes. They have forced them into nursing homes, and one person has already died from this. ADAPT in Nashville held a month-long sit-in, and we will have a national action there in the spring of 2006.

In the afternoon some of us from Chi cago met with staff people for Illinois Congress members. We are supporting MICASSA, an act which promotes community care rather than nursing homes, and “money follow the person” legislation—which puts a disabled person’s money under his or her own control, not the nursing home or institution that he or she is in.

How did the issue of Katrina
tie in with your actions?

People with disabilities were being treated very badly in the evacuation. We raised this in all our actions. A lot of people who had been living in their own houses or apartments were taken out of state and placed in nursing homes, and their wheelchairs were taken away and they were given junky chairs by the airlines.

How did that happen?

Well, when you use a wheelchair and you travel by plane, the airlines won’t send your own wheelchair on the plane. They confiscate your wheelchair and keep it at your point of origin, and at your destination they give you cheap wheelchairs of their own.

So the evacuees’ own wheelchairs are still impounded at the airport in New Orleans?

We think so. This also happened to us when we flew out from Chicago for the protest, and when we got back, two of us had had their chairs damaged by the airline when they were supposed to be storing them. One had a panel removed and another had a wire cut.

More information on the demonstration, including pictures and press releases, and on our demands and the legislation we support are at the website www.adapt.org.