Disability Rights

By Elizabeth Abbot
Health Access

Well, I'm back from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) meeting in Seattle!

I went to the NAIC meeting because I am one of the dozen or so consumer representatives who were chosen in March to represent consumers' interests as that organization works out many of the details of how health care reform will play out. The NAIC increased the numbers of consumer representatives this year because of the central role the NAIC has in writing policies and model regulations for the states and their official advisory role to the federal government in health care reform implementation. They already are lobbied by hundreds of industry representatives, and the commissioners needed the consumer perspective of how the implementation of health care reform.

By Sam Gold
National Organization of Injured Workers

The California Workers' Compensation system frequently defies common sense as to how it’s supposed to work effectively and truly help the occupationally injured.

It gives occupationally injured workers absolutely no incentive to go back to work nor does it supply a reasonable training mechanism to guide them back into productive employment with the loss of the vocational rehabilitation benefit.

Part of the problem goes back to its inception. Workers' Compensation began in Germany in the 1880s. Chancellor Bismarck was looking for a way to quell the anger over the large number of worker deaths after he outlawed the unions. In other words, it was a bone thrown to the people, and still is. It entitled workers/families to some compensation in exchange for which the employer could not be sued.

By Willie Pelote
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

No one is competing for low-income patients: that’s the unfortunate truth for those who depend on Medi-Cal for their health insurance. When national health care reform is fully implemented, one in four Californians will be eligible for Medi-Cal. In concept, that should mean that more Californians will have improved access to doctors, but that isn’t the reality because most doctors – 70% of California’s doctors according to the California Medical Association- won’t accept Medi-Cal patients.

Current California law limits employment options for doctors by prohibiting hospitals from hiring doctors. Since doctors cannot afford to set up private practice in communities where most of the patients are Medi-Cal insured or uninsured, low-income and rural Californians are left without adequate access to medical care.  This needs to change if we want national health care reform to fulfill its promise.

By Anthony Wright
Health Access California

On Jan. 1, 2014, at least two million Californians will become newly eligible for Medi-Cal; but this is not to say that they will magically be enrolled when the ball drops in Times Square.  Without carefully laying the proper groundwork, this and other provisions of health reform law won't have their full impact.

How to best make this transition for Medi-Cal, which currently serves more than seven million Californians -- including low-income children, parents, seniors and people with disabilities -- is just one of the key goals through the current negotiations between the state and federal governments over the program's next five years. The stakes are high on these and other issues, all considered as part of discussions around a new Medicaid waiver.

By Doug Moore
United Domestic Workers (UDW) Homecare Providers Union

As we mark the 20th anniversary of the passage of the groundbreaking Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) this week, California should be leading the way in implementing this historic civil rights breakthrough for people with disabilities.

We should be working to eliminate barriers in employment, transportation, education and other areas that prevent the disabled from living independently and productively.

By Jason Kletter
Bay Area Addiction Research and Treatment

The governor has proposed to eliminate all Medi-Cal funding for drug treatment. On a single day this fall, the governor’s proposal would cut off methadone treatment for 35,000 heroin and prescription drug addicts. Intended to save state funds, the proposal would end up costing much more than it would save. California would immediately lose $61 million in federal matching funds to save $53 million in state funds. California would risk losing another $100 million in federal Substance Abuse Prevention&Treatment block grant funds, due to our failure to “maintain effort.”

By Marty Omoto

Sweeping changes to the State’s Medicaid program – called “Medi-Cal” - is the focus of two identical bills before the Assembly Health Committee (SB 208) and Senate Health Committee (AB 342). The Schwarzenegger Administration proposal submitted to the federal government earlier this month will have a major impact on hundreds of thousands of children and adults with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind, seniors, and persons without health insurance. 

The proposal submitted to federal Centers on Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under the US Department of Health and Human Services, is known as the “Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver Demonstration Project”, and includes mandatory enrollment for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind and seniors into Medi-Cal managed health care plans.

By Thu Phan

Yesterday as the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard a case that is critical to our ability to live independently, I joined dozens of other people with disabilities, low-income seniors, and our caregivers to keep up the fight for safe, quality home care. 

We gathered on the steps of San Francisco’s James R. Browning court house to show California leaders and community members what California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program means to us.

By Sam Gold
National Organization of Injured Workers

First of all let's get something straight; there was no reform of Workers' Compensation, period! Call it whatever you want, but don't you dare call it a reform!

The word "reform" is defined in many ways; Here are some examples:

1. To improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects; put into a better form or condition.
2. To abolish abuse or malpractice in: reform the government.
3. To put an end to (a wrong).
4. A change for the better; an improvement.

Can you honestly say that what occurred in the legislature in 2004 with Senate Bill 899 meets any of these definitions?

By Steve Smith
California Labor Federation

Looks like desperation is beginning to set in over at Team Whitman headquarters. Monday in Roseville, Meg Whitman told a small audience that she would appoint a grand jury to root out the more than $7.5 billion in fraud she claims occurs annually in programs for the poor, seniors and people with disabilities. Tough talk. Just one problem, those numbers have absolutely no basis in reality.

Greg Lucas at California’s Capitol analyzes Whitman’s bogus claim of fraud: