WHO: ADAPT Chapters: DC Metro ADAPT, PA ADAPT, and Maryland ADAPT
WHAT: Camp-Out to Save Our Medicaid
WHERE: Out Front the Russell and Dirksen Senate Buildings
WHEN: July 23, 2017 at 8:00pm

ADAPT Demands Our United States Senators Vote NO on the Better Care Reconciliation Act and Vote NO on the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act – Save Our Medicaid

7/23/17, Washington, DC: Tonight, over 15 ADAPT members from DC Metro ADAPT, PA ADAPT, and Maryland ADAPT are setting up camp to save disabled lives and liberty in front of the Russell and Dirksen buildings. Disability rights activists with ADAPT are protesting against the ACA repeal and caps and cuts to Medicaid in the Senate healthcare bill. “To say people will die under these changes is not an exaggeration,” said Cathleen Holdsworth, a Philly ADAPT organizer. “Medicaid services are what allow us to do our jobs, live our lives, and raise our families. Where would my daughter be if her parents ended up in a nursing home? She even has a disability herself and is fearful of ending up in an institution due to these cuts and threats to our lives! Without these services many disabled and elderly Americans will die. We won’t let that happen,” she said.

The Camp-Out to Save Our Medicaid starts a month after a protest in Washington DC where ADAPT activists were literally dragged out of the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The previous DC protest fell on the 18th anniversary of Olmstead vs. LC the 1999 Supreme Court Ruling which first recognized disabled people’s right to live in the community. ADAPT organizer Germán Parodi of Pennsylvania quickly noted the connection between that case and the Senate health care talks. Parodi states that, “We fought so hard to have our right to live in the community recognized. Now, we are 18 years later, still fighting to keep our right from being tossed against our will into places like the Georgia Regional Hospital and Pennhurst – institutions of our nightmares.” The Camp-Out to Save Our Medicaid will fall on the 27th anniversary week of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Jill Jacobs from DC Metro ADAPT declared, “I am camping out because Medicaid saves lives. Without it, people I know and love will die and go into nursing homes. My own family will suffer greatly. My friends, and thousands upon thousands will be institutionalized, and yours will, too. Neighbors, co-workers, hard-working human beings will disappear from our communities. I am camping to save lives and communities. The truth? I am camping because Medicaid literally keeps my son alive. I refuse to sit at home, shut my mouth, and let greedy men kill my son.”

Congress has been waging a tireless war on the disabled and elderly communities and we’ve met them with Resistance at every corner! Respect Our Existence Or Expect Our Resistance!

ADAPT’s history, the issues we are fighting for and our activities can be followed on our web site at www.adapt.org, our ADAPT Facebook pagewww.facebook.com/NationalADAPT/ and on Twitter – look for#ADAPTandRESIST