Thread by @AdyBarkan

I've got some incredibly exciting news for anyone who cares about health care and the well-being of people with disabilities in America. #MedicareForAll

As you may know, people who need long term care currently can't get it through Medicare if they want to stay in their home...

...They have to be institutionalized or impoversh their family and go on Medicaid. 

Well, we've got a plan to change all that! 

@RepJayapal has written a bill that provides healthcare for all. And all means all, including disabled people like me.

She wrote it with our community holding the pen. Over months,  disability rights activists went back and forth on the language. We are included. Not just as a side bar or foot note. 

@RepJayapal Medicare for All Act of 2019 does a few things I’m really excited about:

1. It provides long term care. Show me an employer plan that does that. Most of us pay $1k a month or more to get that plan, on top of what we are paying for the basic healthcare itself.

2. It will allow me to live at home for the rest of my life. With my wife. And my son. My friends. My family. Surrounded by the things and people I love. That make me whole and settled. That connect me to humanity. That give me dignity.

3. My living at home will make life easier for my family. My wife won't have to choose between spending time with me or spending time with our son. She won't have to drive hours to my facility to see me. She won't have to worry about how I’m treated when she leaves...

...She has enough to worry about. She can keep her work routine. My son can keep his school routine. They can live with dignity and a little more peace.

4. The bill actually breaks the monopolies that the pharmaceutical industry hides behind to drive up its obscene profits. You may not know this, but I cut my teeth on activism to make sure that people could get affordable meds. It’s nice to be able to see this come to fruition.

5. This law would eliminate medical bills & mountains of paperwork. I'm a lawyer and a policy wonk, and I still struggle to figure out what the hell my insurance company sends me. What they do and don’t cover. They do that on purpose. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not supposed to.

6. Under this law, there will be no copays, no deductibles, no out of pocket expenses. This is a huge deal for people who have to use a lot of medical care.

You may think it's too good to be true. But it's not. It’s called the right to health. And other people in other countries have it. And now, after we pass this bill, here in the US, so will people with disabilities and everyone else.

We won’t leave you behind. #MedicareForAll