ADAPT pushes Ohio on in-home services
Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 2 -- Despite a restraining order restricting five or more ADAPT activists from entering any Ohio state office building, today ADAPT sought to meet with Ohio Department of Human Services head Jackie Senski. The group wants Senski to identify people in nursing homes and other institutions and offer them services in the commmunity.
On Monday, the group reported that 132 of its members had been arrested -- including several arrests for criminal trespassing when activists attempted to use the bathroom of the state office building. -- when the group took over two floors of the building housing state offices, including the office of Governor Bob Taft on the 30th floor. ADAPT says Governor Taft refuses to meet with the group until Thursday, when ADAPT is leaving town.
The Columbus Dispatch reported today that the group had held the building for over 15 hours. "At one point, more than 450 protesters lined the State Street entrance of the Riffe Center," reported the Dispatch. The newspaper reported that the state had obtained a restraining order keeping protesters from state buildings.
The group is also trying to get a meeting with Ohio House Speaker Joanne Davidson has been asked to hold hearings on an Ohio bill( H.B. 215) requiring the state to offer individuals on Medicaid a choice of getting services in their homes. The bill, the Ohio Personal Assistance Services Act, was introduced in April but has seen no action.
ADAPT says that 89% of Ohio's Medicaid long term care dollars go to nursing homes and other institutions, spending $2.5 billion a year on institutional care, eight times as much as it spends on in-home and community based services.
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