© 2009 David Sachs / SEIU

Members of ADAPT, the United States’ largest grassroots advocacy organization for people with disabilities, and SEIU, the nation’s largest union for home care workers, created a stir in the nation’s capitol last week when they gathered to protest the Obama administration’s perceived lack of support for the Community Choice Act (CCA).

The three-day rally held April 27-29 drew considerable media attention when many of the 400 ADAPT members in attendance blocked Independence and Constitution Avenues, crawled up the steps of the Capitol Building, and chained themselves to the White House fence. Nearly a hundred, many of them using wheel chairs, were arrested by Washington, D.C. police for exceeding the size limit for protesting without a permit outside the White House (“More Than 100 Arrested in Series of Protests,” The Washington Post, April 28).

The event received coverage from ABC News, USA Today, McKnight’s, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and more.

CCA was introduced in March 2009 by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), and would amend the Social Security Act to eliminate the so-called “institutional bias” that presently allows federal Medicaid payments to be spent only on institutional nursing home care instead of home-based care.

ADAPT and SEIU each have interconnected but distinct reasons for supporting the legislation and organizing last week’s event.

ADAPT claims the current policy effectively forces people with disabilities and older people into nursing homes, even when it’s preferable and often cheaper for them to receive treatment at their own home. They want CCA to be included as part of the Obama administration’s overall health reform package, but the White House says it hasn’t yet decided if it will do this, even though it does support CCA, which Obama co-sponsored when he was a member of the Senate (“Police Arrest Angry Members of the Disabled Community Who Are Picketing the White House,”  ABC News, April 27).

SEIU claims CCA will not only help to provide more personalized, in-home care but will create more jobs for direct-care workers. Shareen Miller, a personal care attendant from Falls Church, Virginia and a member of SEIU, said in a joint press release from SEIU and ADAPT, “To ensure quality supports in the home, we need good home care jobs. That’s why personal care attendants and consumers are uniting to pass the Community Choice Act” (“ADAPT Disability Rights Activists and SEIU Home Care Attendants Tell Congress: Community Choice is a Right,” PR Newswire, April 29).

The two organizations also indicated that the protest was part of a larger effort they are mounting “to strengthen the country’s current long-term services and supports system, and prepare it for the rising demand for in-home services as the baby boomer generation ages.”