Americans with Disabilities are at a pivotal point in our history. Medicaid, which pays for the assistance many in our community need to have life and liberty, is under attack. Republicans have decided that, to fund a tax cut for the wealthy, they will devastate the services that disabled and elderly Americans rely on. These services include the medications and medical care we need to survive, the assistive devices – like wheelchairs and ventilators – we need to live our lives, and the funds to pay attendants to help us with our daily needs.
For millions of people with disabilities, Medicaid is the key to an independent life. It means being able to live in the community, go to school, have a job, and much more.
The health care legislation proposed in the Senate, and passed in the House, threatens it all. It includes MASSIVE cuts to Medicaid that will be devastating to people with disabilities and their families.
The attack on Medicaid is an attack on Disabled Americans and our very lives because, if these cuts go through, there is no question that Disabled Americans will die.
We cannot let that happen. Senators must hear loud and clear that MEDICAID MEANS INDPENDENCE!
Medicaid isn’t perfect. In fact, the Disability Community has been advocating for years that Medicaid has violated disabled people’s right to liberty, which is secured in two places in the U.S. Constitution, by forcing us to choose between institutional services that keep us alive but segregated, and living in the community without services. Without being able to choose community-based services, our people are denied the liberties that Americans have fought and died to protect.
With our lives and liberty on the line, it has become clear that others will not win this fight for us. They have tried. If Disabled Americans are going to live and have liberty, it is up to us to fight for it ourselves.
It is time for the entire Disability Community to TAKE ACTION across our nation and demand that Senate Republicans stop their war on the Disability Community. ADAPT, NCIL and others in the Disability Community are coordinating this effort.
JOIN THE FIGHT! This week GO to the offices of your Senators who are for the bill or on the fence and CONFRONT THEM.
BE LOUD! Polite and thoughtful hasn’t worked.
BE ANGRY! This is about our LIVES and our FREEDOM as Disabled Americans.
MAKE HISTORY! We are not just fighting for ourselves. We are fighting for our children, and we are fighting for the generations of disabled Americans who will follow us. Their lives and liberty are depending on us.
BE RELENTLESS!
