Today, March 24, the Community Choice Act was re-introduced in Congress by Senator Tom Harkin (D – Iowa) and Representative Danny Davis (D – Chicago)!
It’s way past time for this legislation.
Medicaid was passed in 1965, when medical technology was not advanced enough to allow severely disabled people to live at home, so institutionalization, the most costly, elaborate and inconvenient option, is the easiest to get in Medicaid law. The best, newer services (home care) are a long road to get to, whereas they’ll happily give you an express ticket to the most difficult, costliest, dinosaur services (institutionalization). Hospitals and nursing homes strip control from the patient and give it to doctors and professionals “who know best.” If you’re lucky, your institution will be like this, and just be a big inconvenience, but if you’re unlucky, it’ll be like this, and you’ll end up beaten or dead.
Institutions are a failed, outdated model, relevant only in few, narrow situations, and have only remained dominant in the law from bureaucratic inertia (a force stronger than gravity) and corporations greasing Congressmen’s palms. That’s not a good reason to lock millions in The Matrix, preventing them from experiencing real life. It’s way past time to open up the playing field to home care. The CCA does that.
Everyone who cares about human rights should support the CCA. Blog it. Tell your friends. And especially your Congressman.
Nick