Four hundred disabled people took over Capitol Hill in downtown Nashville yesterday. Hundreds of folks in wheelchairs blocked at least half a dozen intersections for hours and hours. The disabled protesters prevented hundreds of downtown workers from leaving work at the onset of rush hour.
Sixty protesters were arrested.
Members of ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) came from across the country for the demonstration. They came to Nashville because Tennessee is one of the worst states in the nation when it comes to taking care of the sick and disabled. And for that distinction, you can thank Governor Phil Bredesen, the man who campaigned on the promise to "fix" the state's Medicaid program. No one knew that he meant to "fix" TennCare by slashing hundreds of thousands of people off the program. Bredesen has cut two hundred thousand from the state's Medicaid program and enforced severe restrictions on thousands of the lucky ones he permitted to stay on the program.
After Bredesen cut millions of dollars from the state Medicaid program last year, untold numbers of disabled people were forced into nursing homes.
And the man calls himself a Democrat.
"ADAPT spokesman Mark Johnson said most long-term care money in Tennessee goes to nursing homes, and disabled people don't have a choice to stay in their own homes. 'People with disabilities are being forced to live in institutions and nursing homes,' said Jose Lara of El Paso, Texas." . . . "We want to stay home, not be stored in a warehouse," said Don DuVaul, a 51-year-old, West Point, Tenn. man who uses a wheelchair."
You can hear some of the horror stories about life in these institutions on the ADAPT website.
State Sen. Steve Cohen (D) is sponsoring a bill that would permit funds now spent on nursing homes to be used for alternative community care, including personal care attendants. Email him.
Lawmakers, state workers and legislative staffers were unable to enter or leave parking garages while the 400 protesters laid siege to Capitol Hill. Several lawmakers were annoyed at the inconvenience. The protesters chanted:
ADAPT members endured the cold and the rain in order to make their point, and they demanded a meeting with Governor Bredesen.
Bredesen!
When do we want him?
Now!
Of course, the millionaire Governor refused to meet with the demonstrators. Bredesen called the protest an "extreme publicity stunt." A statement from the Governor's office charged that protesters had created "a serious disruption to downtown businesses and state employees."
Just what you might expect from the man who compared Medicaid to socialism. If the Governor wants to talk about "disruption," he should try surviving under the merciless blade of the Bredesen health care axe.
If the Democratic Party stood for anything, they'd throw Phil Bredesen out. If the Democratic Party stood for anything, disabled people wouldn't be demonstrating in our streets.
From the looks of the ADAPT website, the protest may not be over:
JOIN ADAPT IN TENNESSEE
ALL ROADS LEAD TO NASHVILLE
Saturday, March 18TH through Thursday, Mar. 23ND, 2006
If the disabled, the sick, and the elderly are going to lead the way, maybe the rest of us will get up and join them. Maybe we will see this country return to progressive values after all.
Thanks to Tennessee Independent Media for the photos. They have more photos and a story too.
The local ABC affiliate has a video. The NBC affiliate has several, but they are embarrassingly slow-streaming and chock full of really bad commercials.
In the interest of being fair and balanced, I'll let Phil Bredesen have the last word:
"Let's scrap the old, inefficient version of Medicaid that's led us to spend more and more of our finite resources on a system that never yielded the kind of public health results we'd hoped for."
"The way in which Medicaid pays for services has more in common with a socialist economy than the common-sense economic and business principles that do such a good job allocating resources efficiently in other parts of our American life."
ADAPT Nashville Protest TennCare Medicaid Cuts Bredesen Tennessee DINO Health care Election 2006 Medicaid is Socialism
