Writing in ProPublica.com, Jennifer LaFleur says President Obama endorsed the wording in the UN disability treaty guaranteeing equal access to community life, but has backed off his earlier promises to mandate such access in the United States.

Obama co-sponsored the Community Choice Act while a member of the Senate.

But since he has been in the White House, Obama has not said he will support moves to make community services mandatory.

… A White House spokesman told ProPublica “the President believes that investing in health and long-term services for people with disabilities is an important national priority,” but would not say whether the President will support legislation to make community services mandatory.

“Ultimately this becomes a bureaucratic conversation about spending health care dollars,” said Bruce Darling, a disability activist with ADAPT. “And we completely lose the concept that this is a civil rights issue for Americans. No other group gets locked up like this. No one would stand for it.”

From the [Salt Lake City] Deseret News:

Forty members of the disability rights advocacy group ADAPT have been blocking the Democratic Party’s national headquarters in Washington, seeking support for the Community Choice Act. Other members of the group have been staging protests in state Democratic Party headquarters around the country.

The measure would allow people with disabilities who are receiving Medicaid benefits the ability to choose between nursing home care and long-term support services in the community.

See also: Obama backs helping hand for long-term care — NPR/Kaiser Health News

From ProPublica/St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

A decade after the Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling aimed at helping people with disabilities move out of institutions, hundreds of thousands of people who want to live on their own are still waiting to be released from nursing homes, rehab centers and state hospitals.

Disability rights advocates worry that President Obama won’t deliver on his promise to give more people with disabilities the option to live at home. Some 270,000 nursing home residents surveyed recently said they would prefer community-based services, and advocates say demand is rising as baby boomers increasingly demand alternatives to nursing home care.

“If you can’t hear the thunderstorm coming, you’re not listening,” said disability advocate Mark Johnson of Atlanta. Living at home “is what people would want for themselves and their families.”

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which held that the unnecessary segregation of individuals with disabilities in institutions may constitute discrimination based on disability. The Court said limiting services for Medicaid recipients to institutional settings was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

See also:

• Tenth anniversary of freedom for people with disabilities, by Mike Ervin in The Progressive
• Columbus rally to celebrate disability ruling — Columbus [GA] Ledger-Inquirer

Earlier posts here.

From the CBS News Political Hotsheet, the Boston Globe, and Reuters:

Leading Democratic senators say the expansion of federal assistance for people with disabilities must be included in the proposal to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

“The way I see it, [this] is a civil rights issue,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. “As far as I’m concerned, there is no health reform without the Community Choice Act.”

Two proposed bills tied to the health care reform initiative:

• The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act sponsored by Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, chair of the HELP Committee. The CLASS Act would create a new, nationwide insurance program, financed through payroll deductions with opt-out enrollment.

• The Community Choice Act sponsored by Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a member of the HELP committee. The Community Choice Act would reform Medicaid to give recipients eligible for institutional-level care the choice of receiving in-home or community-based assistance rather than nursing home care.

Harkin said the Community Choice Act is estimated to cost between $2 billion to $4 billion a year.

“That’s a lot of money, but we’re talking about a $1 trillion health reform bill,” he said. “I’m here to tell you, 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 percent is not too much to ask to provide civil rights.”

Writing in the Albany Times Union, Michael Volkman says the Obama administration has quietly withdrawn its support of the Community Choice Act, which both Obama and Vice President Biden had co-sponsored as senators. Obama had pledged support for the measure on the campaign trail.

The bill would change the Medicaid statute to remove its bias toward institutional care. Such a change, Volkman says, would reverse “an injustice within Medicaid that ruins people’s lives and wastes your money.”

Now the White House has changed the disabilities issues page on its Web site. Gone is mention of the President’s intention to enforce the Community Choice Act. [See original text here.] The new paragraph merely states that, “the President believes that more can be done to encourage states to shift more of their services away from institutions and into the community, which is both cost effective and humane.”

Encouraging states to take the lead doesn’t mean they will. If they wanted to, they could have done it years ago.

Is this really how the President feels about this issue?

Did he just give us lip service during the campaign?

Earlier posts here.

From the ABC News “Political Punch” blog, Associated Press/USA Today, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal Photo Journal:

U.S. Park Police arrested 91 demonstrators in front of the White House yesterday, including some in wheelchairs who chained themselves to the fence. They were protesting what they said was the Obama administration’s failure to honor its campaign promises to support the Community Choice Act.

The measure would provide people with disabilities and older Americans the option to use federal funding for community-based attendant services instead of just for nursing homes.

(Photo from the Wall Street Journal)

Peter V. Berns, executive director of the The Arc of the United States, is calling on President Obama to use the controversy around his Special Olympics remark as an opportunity to advance public understanding and acceptance of people with intellectual disabilities. The comments come in a letter to the president posted on the organization’s website.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities “understand that public attitudes, misinformation and negative stereotypes are the biggest obstacle to their inclusion in the community,” Berns said. “Join us in breaking down the attitudinal barriers that stand in the way of full inclusion.”

Berns called on Obama to convene a White House meeting to address the following:

• The 700,000 individuals and their families on waiting lists for home and community based services;
• Recent reports of abuse and neglect of people with intellectual disabilities in Iowa and Texas;
• The institutional bias of the Medicaid system and the lack of adequate funding for community care; and
• The need to address long term care and support.

(File photo from [UK] Guardian)