Today, the Department of Health and Human Services released the final “short-term plan” rule. These “short-term plans” can provide hollow coverage with hidden gaps for those who sign up. Expanding short-term plans will raise premiums and reduce plan choices for individuals and employers in the regular insurance market.

The proposal expands availability of a group of products that may implement discriminatory practices. This will likely draw healthier individuals off the Marketplace by offering them skinnier, medically-underwritten products, which will inflate prices and out-of-pocket costs on the Marketplace. The Arc believes that insurance coverage must ensure access to timely, affordable, high quality, and comprehensive health care that meets the needs of individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions.

Expanding access to short-term plans will move us even further away from achieving these goals. Short-term plans are not subject to consumer protections that have tremendous value for individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions, such as mandated essential health benefits, protections for people with pre-existing conditions, prohibitions on use of lifetime or annual caps, and other non-discrimination provisions. For these reasons, The Arc, in partnership with a coalition of other disability rights organizations known as the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, released comments earlier this year opposing this rule.

“The Affordable Care Act ended the practice of discriminatory health insurance practices; this rule allows insurance companies to once again set higher premiums based on health conditions. This limits access to comprehensive coverage and that will have a dire impact on people with significant health issues, like individuals with chronic illness and disabilities.

“Make no mistake, today’s final rule undermines current law and puts Americans with pre-existing conditions at risk. We remain steadfast in our commitment to protect the Affordable Care Act and the benefits it provides for people with disabilities,” said Julie Ward, Deputy Executive Officer for Public Policy, The Arc.

July 16-20, 2018 is National Disability Voter Registration Week (NDVRW)! The REV UP Campaign, organized by the American Association of People with Disabilities, coordinates NDVRW each year to get people with disabilities registered to vote, educated about the upcoming election, and ready to cast their ballots. REV UP stands for Register! Educate! Vote! Use Your Power! The campaign aims to increase the engagement of the disability community around voting. Across the country, many chapters of The Arc are coordinating events in their communities for NDVRW in partnership with REV UP.

NDVRW is especially important this year because 2018 is big election year, with elections on the federal, state and local levels. People with disabilities have powerful potential to make their perspectives heard by voting. According to a research report from Rutgers University, there were 35.4 million eligible voters with disabilities in 2016. When we include family members of people with disabilities, the disability community makes up 25% of the total electorate. Yet, people with disabilities often face barriers to voting which often leads to the registering and voting in lower numbers than people without disabilities. Let’s change that!

Ready to celebrate NDVRW and make your voice heard? Here’s how you can get involved:

• Register to Vote – Make sure you are registered to vote and your registration is up to date.
• Register your Friends – Spread the word! Make sure your family and friends are registered to vote, too.
• Find Out More – Registering is just the first step! To learn more about state laws, where to vote, specific elections, and more, visit The Arc’s Know Your Right to Vote webpage and Self Advocates Becoming Empowered GoVoter site.

The Arc released the following statement after news that the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, also known as the “Farm Bill”, failed to pass the United States House of Representatives. The Farm Bill reauthorizes farm programs and policy as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“The current version of the Farm Bill was just the latest attack on programs that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities rely on. If enacted as is, the Farm Bill voted down by the House today would have cut basic food assistance for children, adults, and seniors who are struggling to put food on the table. We are grateful to Members of Congress who recognized what this legislation would have meant for their constituents and voted no.

“We fundamentally disagree with the notion embedded throughout the proposed bill that some people are more “deserving” of basic food assistance than others. Approximately 11 million people with disabilities across the United States rely on SNAP to help them eat. Cutting off SNAP – including through new and harsher work and reporting requirements – would only make it harder for people with disabilities and their families to access the food they need to work and to survive. If policymakers want to increase employment, Congress needs to make major new investments in job training and supports and services for job-seekers with disabilities and their families – not cut off their basic food assistance.

“We are relieved that the current version of this legislation was not passed, but recognize there is still work to do. The Farm Bill has a long history of bipartisan collaboration and support. Our hope is that Congressional leaders will work together to develop a bipartisan proposal for reauthorizing the Farm Bill that strengthens and protects SNAP,” said Marty Ford, Senior Executive Officer of Public Policy, The Arc.

On net, the bill voted on by the House today proposes deep cuts to food assistance under SNAP. As taken up by the full House, an estimated 2 million people would lose their SNAP food assistance or see their benefits reduced under the bill.

• The bill would significantly expand SNAP’s existing work requirements, forcing SNAP beneficiaries age 18 to 59 to engage in work or job training activities for at least 20 hours per week. The bill’s exceptions for people raising very young children or supporting a family member who is “incapacitated” (as stated in the bill) are likely to prove woefully inadequate and extremely difficult for people with disabilities to navigate. Ultimately, these new requirements would cause many people to lose their food assistance, making it harder for them to work, based on experience with existing work requirements in SNAP and other programs.
• While the bill calls for greater access to job training programs, new federal investments would be funded largely by cuts to SNAP food benefits, and analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates that funding levels for job training would be highly insufficient.
• The bill also includes extensive new reporting requirements with harsh consequences if a person misses a deadline.

For The Arc, the quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. – “Everybody can be great because everyone can serve” – has a special meaning. Many perceive people with disabilities as the ones in need of service – but in reality, they are an important part of civic engagement at the state, local, and national levels. That’s why we’re grateful to have been selected for a third year by the Corporation for National and Community Service to execute volunteer projects for the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.

We issued grants to 12 of our chapters across the country to engage in events that addressed the problem of food insecurity in communities across the country. Events included sandwich-making competitions, donation cook-offs, food drives and delivery, and food bank volunteer events. Each chapter’s creative and engaging projects helped further our mission of community inclusion and participation for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

 “I think it is very important as citizens and self-advocates that we show we care about the needs of people around us by getting outside our own routines and giving our time and energy to the Martin Luther King projects… I was very happy to serve in whatever way I was able to such a good cause and project.” – Sean Lewis, President of Tulsa People First in Oklahoma

Our 2018 grantees included The Arc of the Glades (FL), The Arc of Nature Coast (FL), The Arc of South Carolina, The Arc of Northeastern Pennsylvania (PA), The Arc Rockland (NY), The Arc of Kent County (MI), The Arc of the Quad Cities Area (IL), The Arc of North Texas (TX), TARC (OK), The Arc of Davidson County and Greater Nashville (TN), The Arc of Lane County (OR), and Choices for Community Living – Delaware (a subsidiary of Liberty Arc (NY).

Inclusive volunteering gives people with and without IDD the opportunity to meet new people in the community while helping those in need. These new connections can lead to long-lasting friendships that impact not only community members being served by the volunteers but the volunteers themselves. The projects also have led to building job skills and new community partnerships. Volunteering truly is a win-win for everyone involved! To date, chapters have collectively done 4,285 hours of service with 762 volunteers and helped 10,609 people. Congratulations to each chapter on their 2018 events so far – and stay tuned on each chapter’s social media as they continue to host events in their communities.

Martin Luther King, Jr. also said: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?” In our chapters, people with and without disabilities continue to answer this call to service year after year.

Learn more about The Arc’s volunteering efforts at thearc.org/inclusive-volunteering.

By: Nicole Jorwic, Director of Rights Policy, The Arc of the United States

During the recent fights to save the Medicaid program from devastating cuts and fundamental restructuring, the home and community based services (HCBS) that individuals with disabilities and their families rely on were in greatest jeopardy.

These services include everything from residential supports, day supports, and employment services, to personal attendant care. This is because under federal Medicaid law, HCBS are OPTIONAL while other services such as institutional services are MANDATORY. So if the cuts included in the recent health care bills would have made it down to the state level, HCBS would have been the first thing on the chopping block. This new reality would have been devastating to individuals and families.

Those HCBS dollars are the ones that, over the last several decades, have funded the desperately needed shift from institutional placements and segregated services for individuals with disabilities to a full life in their communities.

What is important to YOU about community living?

Share your story!

I have been lucky in my life to be a part of a community that involved all individuals in every aspect of the community, including my brother Chris who has autism. Chris is 28, lives in Illinois and receives Home and Community Based Services through the Medicaid program to remain in the same community where he has lived his whole life.

Not only do HCBS benefit the individuals with disabilities who receive them to stay in their community, it benefits every community member. Because of the services that Chris receives he is able to live in his home, do things that he chooses during the day out in the community, interacting with people who do not have disabilities, and gets the support that he needs to communicate through typing. Chris has a full life, and Medicaid HCBS have made that possible. However, it is never lost on me that if Chris had been born 20 or 30 years earlier, his life would most likely look very different because of his significant level of needs. Chris would have languished in an institution, away from his family, friends and his COMMUNITY never learning to express his wants, insights and amazing sense of humor. This knowledge is why I feel so passionately about making life in the community a reality for all individuals with disabilities, no matter their level of need.

The disability community showed our strength during the fights to protect Medicaid, and now we must rise up again to show the importance of ensuring that HCBS dollars are spent in the community and not in settings that isolate individuals from interacting with all parts of their communities. We need to show that life in the community is possible for ALL! The best way to send that message is to share stories about why community matters in YOUR life, and what your life looks like in the community.

Chris has already written his own story and submitted it, please take a moment to do the same. You can enter your information here. We will use these stories to show the need to increase the investment in HCBS dollars and to ensure that capacity is built to support every individual in their communities.