Michigan Disability Resistance

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – October 2017: Open Enrollment and the ACA Marketplaces

The October Kaiser Health Tracking Poll focuses on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) marketplaces as the November 1st open enrollment period approaches, amidst a period of uncertainty on the future of the individual market. The majority of the public think it is more important for President Trump and Congress to work on legislation to stabilize the marketplaces rather than continue efforts to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law (66 percent vs. 29 percent). There are distinct differences by party with the majority of Democrats (85 percent) and independents (67 percent) saying legislation to stabilize the marketplaces is more important while about half of Republicans (51 percent) say it is more important for lawmakers to continue efforts to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law.

One proposed step Congress could take to stabilize the markets and control costs for people who purchase their plans on their own is to guarantee payments to insurance companies that help cover the cost of deductibles and copayments for lower-income Americans (known commonly as ‘cost-sharing reduction’ (CSR) payments). The Trump Administration has announced they will stop making these payments.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) condemns the multiple new attacks on the Affordable Care Act

https://goo.gl/JwGpN1

The recent actions from the White House hurt our country in multiple ways. The executive order signed yesterday threatens critical protections for people with disabilities by making it easier for insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. It also allows insurers to sell junk coverage that doesn’t cover critical services and won’t protect consumers from soaring health care costs. In addition, last night’s decision to withhold funding for Cost Sharing Reductions will raise costs for everyone, but particularly for working- and middle-class Americans who rely on this basic assistance to afford health insurance. These actions will directly harm millions of people and are without justification.

The American people have clearly and repeatedly rejected these kinds of proposal over the past nine months. As ASAN has stated in the past, any future attempts at health care reform must meet the needs of all Americans, leave the Medicaid program intact, and proactively include the disability community from the beginning of the process. ASAN calls on the Trump administration to listen to the voices of everyday Americans, stop the attacks on our health care, and support a bipartisan process in Congress. Our government must work to develop thoughtful and carefully considered proposals that make healthcare better for everyone and increase access to quality, affordable coverage rather than endangering the lives of people with disabilities.

The little red pill being pushed on the elderly

https://goo.gl/jnCs79

The maker of a little red pill intended to treat a rare condition is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year as it aggressively targets frail and elderly nursing home residents for whom the drug may be unnecessary or even unsafe, a CNN investigation has found.

And much of the money is coming straight from the federal government.

The pill, called Nuedexta, is approved to treat a disorder marked by sudden and uncontrollable laughing or crying -- known as pseudobulbar affect, or PBA. This condition afflicts less than 1% of all Americans, based on a calculation using the drugmaker's own figures, and it is most commonly associated with people who have multiple sclerosis (MS) or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Nuedexta's financial success, however, is being propelled by a sales force focused on expanding the drug's use among elderly patients suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and high-volume prescribing and advocacy efforts by doctors receiving payments from the company, CNN found.

Since 2012, more than half of all Nuedexta pills have gone to long-term care facilities. The number of pills rose to roughly 14 million in 2016, a jump of nearly 400% in just four years, according to data obtained from QuintilesIMS, which tracks pharmaceutical sales. Total sales of Nuedexta reached almost $300 million that year.

(S)tate regulators have found doctors inappropriately diagnosing nursing home residents with PBA to justify using Nuedexta to treat patients whose confusion, agitation and unruly behavior make them difficult to manage.

"There has to be a diagnosis for every drug prescribed, and that diagnosis has to be real ... it cannot be simply made up by a doctor," said Kathryn Locatell, a geriatric physician who helps the California Department of Justice investigate cases of elder abuse in nursing homes. "There is little to no medical literature to support the drug's use in nursing home residents (with dementia) -- the population apparently being targeted."

Chicken workers sue, saying they were modern-day slaves

https://goo.gl/S5nf3w

Three Oklahoma men filed a federal class-action lawsuit today alleging that they were modern-day slaves forced by a drug rehabilitation program to work for free in chicken processing plants.

An investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting last week found that judges across the country have ordered defendants into rehab programs that double as work camps for for-profit companies.

The investigation zeroed in on Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery, or CAAIR, an Oklahoma program that puts hundreds of men a year to work slaughtering chickens at processing plants owned by Simmons Foods Inc. The men work for free, under constant threat of prison, on products for big-name brands, including Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, KFC and Rachael Ray’s Nutrish pet food. The rehab program keeps their wages.

“By defrauding these men and providing virtual slave labor for a private corporation, CAAIR and Simmons are not only violating longstanding labor laws, they are violating basic standards of human decency and the core concepts underpinning our constitutional democracy,” the firm that filed the suit, Smolen, Smolen & Roytman, said in a statement.

The men are seeking more than $5 million. Their complaint alleges violations of state and federal labor laws, which require employers to pay employees at least minimum wage and overtime for their work. The men at CAAIR made nothing. The few who graduated from the one-year program were eligible for a $1,000 gift.

Among other legal issues, the lawsuit alleges that the program violates the 13th Amendment ban on slave labor and involuntary servitude. The complaint also alleges that the program constitutes human trafficking under Oklahoma state law and accuses CAAIR of committing fraud by not providing men with the drug and alcohol rehabilitation services they were promised.

Ep 4: Disabled People in Media & Journalism

https://goo.gl/eAFqzL

Today’s episode is on disabled people in media and representation. Alice talks with social justice journalist s.e. Smith and Vilissa Thompson, a disability rights consultant, writer, and advocate. There are many marginalized communities pushing for better representation in media, but what does that really mean? What does it look like? In this episode, they have a conversation on how editors and newsrooms can improve media coverage of disabled people and what they can do to increase newsroom disability diversity.

Transcript

[Google doc] [PDF]