Michigan Disability Resistance

The previous year, Arias had been mowing the median of Highway 59 just over the Alabama line when his riding lawnmower hit a hole, throwing him into the air. He slammed back in his seat, landing hard on his lower back.

Arias received pain medication, physical therapy and steroid injections through his employer's workers' compensation insurance. But the pain in his back made even walking or sitting a struggle. So his doctor recommended an expensive surgery to implant a device that sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord to relieve chronic pain. Six days after that appointment, the insurance company suddenly discovered that Arias had been using a deceased man's Social Security number and rejected not only the surgery but all of his past and future care.

Desperate, Arias hired an attorney to help him pursue the injury benefits that Florida law says all employees, including unauthorized immigrants, are entitled to receive. Then one morning after he dropped off two of his boys at school, Arias was pulled over and arrested, while his toddler watched from his car seat.

Arias was charged with using a false Social Security number to get a job and to file for workers' comp. The state insurance fraud unit had been tipped off by a private investigator hired by his employer's insurance company.

Liz Carr was born in 1972 and is a British actress, stand-up comedian, broadcaster and international disability rights activist.

She has used a wheelchair since the age of seven.

This is due to a rare condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita.

Liz has been part of a number of comedy groups, including Abnormally Funny People with Tanyalee Davis, Steve Day, Steve Best, Simon Minty, and Chris McCausland.

In 2011, Carr was part of a Newsnight debate on assisted suicide, following the screening on the BBC of Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die, which included Jeremy Paxman and David Aaronovitch.

She opposeD Lord Faulkner's Assisted Dying Bill, stating: "I fear we’ve so devalued certain groups of people – ill people, disabled people, older people – that I don’t think it’s in their best interests to enshrine in law the right of doctors to kill certain people."

To honour her views she created the Assisted Suicide: The Musical.

On her website the musical is described as:

In 2015, MP’s voted overwhelmingly against legalising assisted suicide.  

Opinion polls would have you believe that the majority of the UK population believe it’s a humane choice to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill or disabled people but Liz, and many other disabled people disagree.  

The Supreme Court recently asked the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to weigh in on whether vending machines are places of public accommodation covered by Title III of the ADA.  The Court’s request related to a pending a Petition for Certiorari filed by a blind plaintiff who unsuccessfully sued Coca-Cola for allegedly owning and/or operating vending machines that are not independently usable by the blind.  Both the District Court and the Fifth Circuit had concluded that such machines are not public accommodations under the ADA.

The DOJ’s amicus brief unequivocally stated its position that vending machines are not public accommodations.  The DOJ advanced a number of arguments in support of its position that a vending machine does not fall within any of the 12 categories of businesses that are considered public accommodations under the statute.  Among other things, the DOJ stated that a vending machine is not a “sales establishment” covered by the law but rather a piece of equipment typically found within public accommodations facilities.

The most significant commentary from the DOJ’s brief concerns a public accommodation’s obligations with regard to self-service equipment provided for public use.  The DOJ stated:

the operator of a public accommodation in which the vending machines is located is better suited to determine whether such changes [(i.e. making the vending machines independently accessible by blind users)] are the most efficient means of complying with the ADA.  When buying or leasing vending machines, some business owners may insist upon the inclusion of accessible features.  Others, however, might choose instead to install the machines at locations within their establishments where their employees will be available to assist customers with disabilities.  The business owner is better positioned than the seller or lessor of the machines to determine what method of ensuring accessibility will be most effective at a particular location.

In theory, Medicaid is supposed to raise what it pays to providers when there aren't enough providers to make sure people have real access. In practice, this rule is gamed and ignored. This decision supports stronger standards....

https://goo.gl/t1L5L2

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court raised the bar last week for what states must prove to establish that their Medicaid provider reimbursement rates are sufficient to ensure a robust network of providers for Medicaid beneficiaries. In Hoag Memorial Hosp. Presbyterian et al. v. Price, __ F.3d __, No. 15-56547 (Aug. 7, 2017), the court held that, under 42 U.S.C. § 1396a(a)(30)(A)’s so-called “equal-access requirement” ("Section 30(A)"), the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services may not simply consider data about Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to care and services, but must compare their level of access to that of the general population. As a result, states will need to produce comparative access data showing a rate change will not adversely affect access for the Medicaid population relative to the general population to have the proposed rate change certified by the Secretary.

The Ninth Circuit ruled that U.S. Congress had provided clear and unambiguous guidance in the equal-access requirement—guidance that the Secretary’s interpretation contradicted. As a result, his interpretation was entitled to no deference. Further, the Ninth Circuit ruled that because the Secretary failed to even consider how Medi-Cal beneficiaries’ access to care and services compared to that of the general public, his approval of the SPA was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act.

Dropping the federally funded cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies that health insurers on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance exchanges use to help low-income enrollees with out-of-pocket costs would increase the federal deficit by $194 billion over 10 years and cause premiums to increase by an average of 20%, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said Tuesday.