The Roving Activist’s Blog

As promised, here is the write-up on what happened at the hearing. I had to be brief, but I think that I covered it all.

Amerine and Mike take in the CCA hearing

The hearing was positive and well-attended by both Energy and Commerce committee members, as well as activists, particularly ADAPT members. Rochester and Philadelphia each had about 50 people in attendance, but there were folks from Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, DC. We all couldn’t fit into the hearing room, so most people had to watch the proceedings from an overflow room (I heard that there were actually three!).

The hearing, titled, “Helping Families With Needed Care: Medicaid’s Critical Role for Americans With Disabilities” was the first hearing of the new congressional session for the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The committee members began by speaking of their concerns about Medicaid and the recent regulation changes that would have untold negative impacts on people with disabilities. Three committee members (Reps. Baldwin, Deal, and Schakowsky) stated that they were co-sponsors and supporters of the Community Choice Act. Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) stated, “I am a proud and enthusiastic supporter of the Community Choice Act”. Representative Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) observed that “it would be appropriate to have this hearing before the Human Rights and Civil Rights committees”. She then received permission to enter the testimony of Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), who along with Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) introduced CCA in the House.

There were six witnesses who testified before the Committee. Diane Rowland, Executive Director of the Kaiser Commission, spoke of recent changes in Medicaid. Stephanie Thomas, of ADAPT, testified about the importance of passing the Community Choice Act, ending the institutional bias in long term care, and fixing the new CMS ruling that reduces the number of days of case management from 180 to 60 for people transitioning from a nursing facility to the community, and only pay for 14 days if the person has been in a facility for less than six months. Ralph Groenfeld, President and CEO of ResCare, spoke about the need for better pay and benefits for direct care workers. Celine Fortin, of the Arc of New Jersey, talked about the CLASS Act, as well as the negative changes in the CMS rulings. She also spoke about the Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act. Aileen McCormick, President and CEO of AmeriGroup Texas, told the story of a man named Henry that her group, with the help of ADAPT, got out of a nursing home, and into the community. She also said that her group and their parent organization, AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans), supports the Community Choice Act. Julie Becket, Policy Director of Family Voices, spoke of Medicaid Options for transitioning to work, such Ticket to Work and Medicaid buy-in. She is the mother of Katie Becket, the first child to get on a waiver in the U.S. There is, in fact, a waiver named for Katie.

Pam and Gremmie at the hearing

After the hearing and lunch, most of the members of the Nation of Rochester went to a scheduled meeting with Representative Louise Slaughter to talk about the Community Choice Act, and why she hasn’t signed on. Her excuse was that the bill would cost too much, but she was quoting from the original, inaccurate scoring done by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). She promised to look into the study by Mitchell LaPlante that shows that the true cost of the Community Choice Act is closer to 1.4 to 3.9 billion dollars, instead of the original projected cost of 20-30 billion dollars.

While a few of our folks were visiting Representatives Kuhl and Reynolds, the bulk of us trooped over to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. In typical ADAPT style, we took over one of the huge inner offices. We thought that the office staff would send in some lackey to deal with us, but they sent in two of her top staff, Reva Price, the Advisor to the Speaker, and Wendell Primus, the Speaker’s Legislative Director. He also deals with health issues. They promised to let the Speaker know that we were there, and to contact the Congressional Budget Office regarding the new study so that CCA will be scored correctly.

All in all, the hearing was very positive. Some of the Committee members spoke of having to care for family members, so they seemed to understand the need for community care. The Community Choice Act has gained 11 new co-sponsors, including four members of the Health Subcommittee!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Activism, ADAPT, Politics, MiCASSA/Community Choice Act, Rochester. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.