Mag, et al., 

I was at a conference last week where Mark McClellan, the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spoke.  In McClellan's comments, he stated that the system should be changed so that the default for people receiving disability assistance services through Medicare and Medicaid would be community based services, and if people wanted to live in a nursing home or other institution, they'd need to qualify for a waiver, much like many folks who receive community supports do now.  In light of the Olmstead decision, that sounds more logical anyway.  But DON'T think that because McClellan said this in public we can let up on Congress!  There are still a lot of congresspeople who need to be convinced that it's the right thing to do, and that it _is_ fiscally responsible.

Kendall

"Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busy-bodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."                            C.S. Lewis 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Tamar Raine [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 6:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: [berkeley-disabled] Survey Help

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Free our people! More than 250,000 people with disabilities
throughout the USA say they want to move out of nursing homes.
Please ask your Congressperson to vote FOR the MICASSA bill, this
will allow medicaid funds to pay for community supports
instead of isolating the person in a nursing home or institution.
HR 910 is the bill number
Senate version of MiCASSA (S 401).

Oakland Mayor's Commission on People with disabilities
~Tamar Mag Raine~
[log in to unmask]
IM: tamarmag48