[Nfbofsc] Medicaid - 6/28/2017

[Ernest Gallman]

[Nfbnet-members-list] Legislative Alert - Medicaid - 6/28/2017
 Dear Fellow Federationists:
 I know you have already been busy contacting your representatives and 
senators about our  legislative issues, but I want to add one more item 
to the list of topics you should discuss with  them. I am sure you are 
aware of the debate that is currently taking place regarding our 
nation’s  healthcare system. The House has voted on its proposal, 
called the American Health Care Act, but  the Senate has not yet done 
so. A vote was scheduled for this week, but it was announced yesterday  
afternoon that it would be postponed. A vote on the Senate healthcare 
proposal, the Better Care  Reconciliation act, will take place 
following the July 4 legislative recess.
 The healthcare proposals currently being considered would devastate 
the Medicaid program, upon  which thousands of blind people rely to 
meet their healthcare needs. Since we now have the  opportunity to 
speak to our senators while they are in their districts over the July 4 
recess,  prior to them voting on the Better Care Reconciliation Act, we 
should urge them to vote against any  cuts to Medicaid and to protect 
the blind Americans who depend on this program.
 President Riccobono wrote an excellent op-ed about this issue, which 
was published in The Hill  recently. At press time, the details of the 
Better Care Reconciliation Act were not known, so the  piece only 
specifically mentions the House’s American Healthcare Act and the 
budget that has been  proposed by the White House. However, we now know 
that the Medicaid cuts proposed in the Senate  bill are every bit as 
bad as those proposed in the House bill and the administration’s 
proposed  budget. Please read President Riccobono’s op-ed for a 
thorough explanation of the devastating  impact these proposed cuts 
would have. It is pasted below for your convenience. Then call or email 
your senators and tell them to vote against Medicaid cuts.
 The best way to contact your member of Congress is to call the Capitol 
Switchboard at (202)  224-3121 and ask for the office in question. 
Emailing your member of Congress is also a good idea.  If you do so, 
please copy  JPare at nfb.org .
 Saving Medicaid is critical to America’s blind
 Mark A. Riccobono
 The Hill – 6/23/2017
 For more than fifty years Medicaid has provided much-needed security 
and stability to some of  America’s most disempowered people. 
Especially for people with disabilities, Medicaid has been and  remains 
an essential lifeline. That lifeline is under attack in the form of 
Draconian cuts proposed  by both the American Health Care Act (AHCA) 
and the current administration’s proposed budget. These  cuts would, 
without exaggeration, upend millions of lives.
 One community in particular – the blind – would be disproportionately 
and negatively affected if  the more than $1 trillion in proposed 
Medicaid cuts came to fruition. According to an analysis of  the cuts, 
upwards of seven hundred thousand people with disabilities would lose 
access to health  insurance as a result of cuts to Medicaid. Based on 
the ratio of blind people currently using  Medicaid relative to the 
total population of disabled people using Medicaid, more than one 
hundred  thousand blind people would lose insurance, making these 
proposed cuts a potential catastrophe for  blind people everywhere.
 The National Federation of the Blind, the oldest and largest 
nationwide organization of blind  people in the United States, strongly 
and unequivocally opposes cuts to Medicaid. These proposed  cuts would 
undermine the security, stability, and prosperity of more than one 
hundred thousand  blind people in this country. This is an untenable 
prospect and we categorically reject it.   Whether it is a poverty rate 
twice the national average or an employment rate less than half the  
national level, the blind already face significant challenges in 
attaining the American dream. To  strip health insurance from so many 
blind people would serve only to erect additional barriers and  
obstacles to our efforts to achieve that dream. Blind households would 
suddenly face drastically  higher costs and strained budgets, 
exacerbating the preexisting challenges of high poverty and low  employment.
 Medicaid, which provides insurance to an estimated 1.4 million blind 
people, is a vital component  of our continuing effort to promote 
opportunity and prosperity in our community. We thus call upon  members 
of the United States Senate to oppose any bill that proposes cuts to 
Medicaid of the type  contained in the AHCA and the current 
administration’s budget. We especially call upon the senators  from the 
eleven states in which at least 40 percent of people with disabilities 
rely on Medicaid  for health insurance to vote no on any legislation 
that would imperil the economic stability and  family security of their 
blind constituents. Namely, senators from the states of California,  
Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New 
York, Rhode Island, Vermont,  and West Virginia should join us in 
opposing any cuts to Medicaid. To vote in favor of such cuts  would be 
to resign tens of thousands of blind people to a life of economic 
uncertainty and hardship.
 When President Lyndon B. Johnson and former President Harry S. Truman 
stood alongside each other  to commemorate the passage of the Social 
Security Amendments Act of 1965, the legislation that  established both 
Medicare and Medicaid, it was clear that something historic and 
revolutionary had  just happened. By extending access to health 
insurance to those who may not have access to it  otherwise, Congress 
codified the idea that health insurance is an indispensable element of 
economic  security and made it a reality. As a result, since 1965, 
millions of blind Americans have been able  to live more stable and 
productive lives. To fundamentally undermine the Medicaid program would 
be  to substantially roll back much of that progress. We sincerely hope 
that the Congress of today, and  the Senate will not dishonor the 
legacy of its forbearers and in doing so, make it harder for we in  the 
blind community to live the kind of lives we want.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/339073-saving-medicaid-is-critical-to-americas-blind?rnd=1498230931
 John Paré
 (410) 659-9314 x 2218
 National Federation of the Blind