DNC Critiques Bush's Medicare Proposal
DEMOCRATIC NEWS
For Immediate Release
August 6, 2002
Contact: Jennifer Palmieri, 202-863-8148
Becky Ogle, 202-256-7208
Bush's New Freedom Equals a "little freedom" for Americans with Disabilities
on Medicare
Washington, D.C. -- Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe
today called President Bush's recently-issued "homebound" Medicare policy
changes misguided, inadequate and simply rhetorical.
"President Bush used the backdrop of the 12th anniversary of the most important
civil rights legislation for people with disabilities, the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), to again put out false promises to people with
disabilities," McAuliffe said.
Last Friday, President Bush said that Medicare home health beneficiaries should
be given a "little freedom" in order to "occasionally take part in their
communities without fear of losing their benefits." Currently the home health
homebound rule in Medicare is being used to incarcerate thousands of people with
permanent disabilities and serious health conditions in their home each day in
order to receive the home health care they need to sustain their lives.
When Medicare was enacted thirty years ago, the homebound rule made perfect
sense for determining who needed the benefit. But in today's technologically
advanced world, the homebound rule is unfair, intrusive and overly proscriptive
for people with the most significant disabilities, similar to the President's
recently released instructions. In fact, the new program instruction to home
health agencies and Medicare carriers is even more restrictive than the already
overly restrictive homebound definition. It cites specific examples of how
beneficiaries can participate in their communities, but these examples do more
harm than good. A beneficiary should be able to leave home to attend college, go
to the movies, or go out to dinner, yet none of these activities are on the new
Medicare list. These exclusions obviously imply that they are not allowed.
For people like David Jayne, the founder of the National Coalition to Amend the
Medicare Homebound Restriction, a man with advanced ALS, or people who have late
stage MS and severe spinal cord injuries who must receive home health services
for the rest of their lives, the rule is damaging to their quality of life.
Nationally, roughly forty-six thousand beneficiaries are estimated to need
skilled home health care for a year or more due to their disability or chronic
illness.
"President Bush's so-called New Program Instruction is no different than his
'New Freedom Initiative.' It is full of rhetorical promises and false claims,"
McAuliffe continued. "The Bush administration's clarification of Medicare policy
is even more restrictive than the existing restrictive homebound definition."
"Once again, I call on the President---and Congress---to deliver 'Real Freedoms'
to people with disabilities, not Bush's version of 'New Freedoms.'"
www.democrats.org
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