1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
Immediate Advocacy Needed: House to Vote to Repeal Healthcare Reform Today
2) National News
Large Network of Private Schools Pays $215,000 to Settle Discrimination Lawsuit
NDRN Report Finds People with Disabilities Exploited at Work: Segregation, Isolation and Abuse
3) State News
Shocking: Feds Sue NY; Accuse City of Fraud for Providing In Home Care
Police: Second Woman with a Disability Talking in L.A. Sexual Assault Probe
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
NAD Action Alert: Say No to Legalized Discrimination at Movie Theaters
2011 Through the Looking Glass Scholarship Announcement and Application
Immediate Advocacy Needed: House to Vote to Repeal Healthcare Reform Today
As the new Republican House leadership takes control, their first priority is to repeal the new healthcare law that extends health insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans. The bill is titled “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” although repeal would mean higher health insurance costs for millions of families, less independence for people with disabilities, in addition to allowing the worst abuses of insurance companies to become legal again.
You may wonder which provisions are targeted for removal, and the answer would be all of them. Although the new leadership in the House has vowed to reduce the deficit, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that repealing healthcare would increase the deficit by $230 billion over the next 10 years. Despite this, House leadership is planning a final vote today to repeal the new healthcare law in its entirety. In fact, some of the hard-won benefits they want to take away from you include:
- Protection from insurance companies who deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions
- The option for parents to keep their children on their health plans up to age 26
- Protection from insurance companies canceling coverage when you get sick
- More affordable prescription drug coverage
- Protection for seniors who take the most medicine by eliminating the “doughnut hole,” the coverage gap in Medicare coverage for prescription drugs
- Prevention of most benefits from being unfairly capped at an annual dollar limit
- The new Patient’s Bill of Rights that outlaws the worst abuses of health insurers
- Subsidies for health insurance for low and middle-income families
- The CLASS Act provision, which creates a new voluntary long-term care insurance program that helps pay for assistance in your home and the community
- The Community First Choice Option, which offers support for Medicaid enrollees who want home- and community-based services
- Extension of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Programs
It is not just wrong to take away these protections, it is immoral. To prevent legislators from erasing these benefits and protections, you must get involved and call your member of Congress urging them not to legalize the abusive tactics of insurance companies again and remove provisions that help people with disabilities live independently. Insurance companies and their allies in Congress want to go back to the days when they were free to cancel your coverage, hike up your premiums, or deny your claims to protect their corporate profits.
In this new year we already find ourselves in a fight; your access to healthcare and independence is under attack. Although not everyone agrees with every provision in the new healthcare law, a full repeal will mean that every gain that we have made (and there are many) will be eliminated. We cannot afford to move backwards, and must take a stand to defend our progress.
Visit http://www.congress.org/ for information on how to contact your legislator. If you have any questions or comments regarding this Action Alert, please contact Austin Walker at (202) 207-0334 or austin@ncil.org.
Large Network of Private Schools Pays $215,000 to Settle Discrimination Lawsuit
Source: The Cypress Times
The Justice Department announced Friday the settlement of a lawsuit filed to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) against Nobel Learning Communities, Inc. (NLC), a private, for-profit entity that operates a nationwide network of more than 180 preschools, elementary schools and secondary schools. These entities operate in the District of Columbia and in 15 states (Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington) under a variety of names, including Chesterbrook Academy, Merryhill School and Evergreen Academy, among others.
In its lawsuit, filed in April 2009 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Justice Department alleged that NLC violated Title III of the ADA by excluding from its programs children with disabilities, including some children with autism spectrum disorder, Down Syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and global developmental delays. NLC denies the allegations.
“It is illegal under the ADA to discriminate against children with disabilities. Just like public schools, private schools must make reasonable modifications of policies to permit children with disabilities to participate fully in the programs they offer,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez. “This agreement ensures that children will not be denied quality preschool and other educational opportunities based upon their disabilities.” Read More.
NDRN Report Finds People with Disabilities Exploited at Work: Segregation, Isolation and Abuse
Source: NDRN
In a report released today, the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) found a total failure of the disability service system to provide quality work for people with disabilities. The report focuses on the problems with segregated work, sheltered environments and low wages and highlights a massive breakdown between good federal and state policies and their implementation and oversight.
It identifies the barriers to employment that people with disabilities face and dispels myths about their capability to be fully employed, equally compensated, and an integral member of American workplaces and communities. It shows a systemic failure to provide hope and opportunity to young people with disabilities who want to transition into traditional work but instead wind up trapped in a sheltered workshop.
“For decades we have worked to ensure federal laws guarantee the right of people with disabilities to live and work in their chosen communities,” said NDRN executive director Curt Decker. “Yet, our investigation found that many people with disabilities are still being segregated and financially exploited.” Read More.
Shocking: Feds Sue NY; Accuse City of Fraud for Providing In Home Care
Source: NY Times, by Anemona Hartocollis
This week, Medicaid fraud investigators struck out in a new direction as federal prosecutors brought a civil fraud lawsuit accusing the New York City government of using the bureaucracy to run its own Medicaid mill. And in the minds of several advocates for [seniors and people with disabilities], the lawsuit raised new questions about health policy, just as the government is expanding health care.
The suit, filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, does not accuse officials of pocketing money for their own gain. Instead, it says the city improperly authorized 24-hour in-home care for thousands of patients, at a cost of $75,000 to $150,000 per year, without obtaining required recommendations from doctors, nurses and social workers. Because of that, Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor, paid “at least tens of millions of dollars” in benefits that it should not have, the lawsuit said.
Robert Doar, the commissioner of the city’s Human Resources Administration, which manages Medicaid in the city, said on Wednesday that he did not believe the city had been so cavalier in approving the home care, and that if it had not followed procedures, the state’s Medicaid officials would have noticed.
With an aging population, the growth of in-home care has been one of the biggest challenges for states trying to control spiraling Medicaid costs. But the part of the lawsuit that troubled health care advocates was the accusation that in some cases, the city approved in-home care when patients should have been placed in nursing homes. The suit cited, by way of example, three elderly patients who, it said, had threatened to kill themselves or were unable to function in their homes.
Several disability lawyers said on Wednesday that they feared the lawsuit would push the city to institutionalize more people rather than let them live at home.
“The lawsuit is causing very great concern for those of us in the disability rights community,” Roger Bearden, director of the Disability Law Center at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, said. “Serving people in the community, giving them the supports they need in the community, is a civil right, protected by antidiscrimination laws.” Read More.
Police: Second Woman with a Disability Talking in L.A. Sexual Assault Probe
Source: CNN
The second of ten or more severely disabled victims whose sexual assaults were captured on videotape has come forward -- a development the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is touting as progress in their burgeoning probe of what they say were years-long assaults of defenseless women.
An anonymous informant last March gave police over 100 hours of video that showed eight or more men sexually assaulting at least ten women, the sheriff's department said in a statement.
Investigators found one of the alleged victims, a 25-year-old woman, on Monday. That woman said Ernie Lloyd, 27 -- who was arrested Saturday and charged with rape of a person with disabilities after he "implicated himself," according to authorities -- had sexually assaulted her.
Lloyd was released from custody on Thursday, the sheriff's department said Friday in a press release. On that same day, a second woman, 27, who had been tracking the story in the news media approached investigators to tell them that she, too, had been assaulted.
That woman, who like the first woman to come forward has a physical disability that renders her defenseless, told sheriff's detectives that a suspect named Bert Hicks sexually assaulted her multiple times when she lived in a residence that he operated.
Hicks is in a Tehachapi, California, state prison after being convicted for fiduciary crimes, abuse and sexual assault against the first victim in a Los Angeles residential care facility. He is due to get out of prison in 2012, the sheriff's department said. Read More.
NAD Action Alert: Say No to Legalized Discrimination at Movie Theaters
Source: NAD
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering updating its regulations regarding captioned movies at movie theaters. Importantly, the DOJ is asking for comments from the public – that’s you!
We need your help to ensure that all movies at all times in all movie theaters are fully accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing. The DOJ proposal, however, would require movie theaters to show closed captioning at 50% of movie showings within a 5-year time period.
The NAD does not support this proposal, which would legalize discrimination against people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Theaters have had ample time to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, which was passed 20 years ago. No more excuses should be accepted! Act Now.
2011 Through the Looking Glass Scholarship Announcement and Application
Through the Looking Glass and its National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families are pleased to announce new scholarships specifically for high school seniors or college students who have parents with disabilities. A total of ten $1000 scholarships will be given out Fall 2011. These scholarships are part of Through the Looking Glass’ National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families. There are separate eligibility requirements for high school seniors and for college students:
- High School Seniors. To be eligible, a student must be a high school graduate (or graduating senior) by Summer 2011, planning to attend a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2011 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, and have at least one parent with a disability.
- College Students. To be eligible, a student must be currently enrolled in a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2011 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, be 21 years of age or younger as of March 1, 2011, and have at least one parent with a disability.
All application materials must be postmarked by March 1, 2011. Individuals may submit only one application per award period.
Selection criteria for all scholarships include academic performance, community activities and service, letter of recommendation and an essay describing the experience of growing up with a parent with a disability.
Please go to our website: http://www.lookingglass.org for more information, including the application form, complete application directions and an FAQ page that answers many common questions as well as offers helpful suggestions.
|
January 19, 2011