Palin Talks About Special Needs Children, But Obama Has Substantive Plans For All People With Disabilities

Ever since Sarah Palin's acceptance speech, there has been a great deal of talk about "special needs" children but little about the issues that concern the 54 million Americans with disabilities of all ages. Pollsters and pundits almost completely ignore the tens of millions of voters in the disability rights constituency---adults with disabilities, family members, and many professionals---but they will play a much larger role in this election than most observers recognize. That makes understanding their issues important.

Palin's promise to be a "friend and advocate" for the families of children with disabilities has some parents understandably excited. In August, University of North Carolina researchers reported "chilling" rates of "hardship" among both middle class and poor families with disabled children as they struggle "to keep food on the table, a roof over their heads, and to pay for needed health and dental care." Large numbers of adults with disabilities face the same hardships.

Even though 90% of the 54 Americans with disabilities are adults, Palin, John McCain, and the news media have talked almost exclusively about children. And that talk has been mostly about "compassion" not "issues." The McCain-Palin campaign website has a single page on "Americans with Disabilities for McCain," but it says nothing about policy positions. Other pages mention autism and disabled veterans but no other issues.

In contrast, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have said little on the campaign trail about disability issues but their campaign website provides detailed policy proposals in a comprehensive "Plan to Empower Americans with Disabilities."

Here's a comparison of McCain-Palin's and Obama-Biden's stances on healthcare, health insurance, and social services for people with disabilities.

Health insurance.

For many people with disabilities, obtaining adequate health insurance---or getting such insurance at all---is a major problem. The McCain website counters as "myth" that his healthcare plan would deny insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. In fact, the criticism is that his plan would not ban discrimination by insurers against people with pre-existing conditions. The Obama-Biden Plan would.

The McCain website also notes that he supported the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 which supplied "some protection against exclusion of pre-existing conditions." In fact, the protection it offers is not only expensive but limited.

The McCain website assures that "nothing in John McCain's plan changes the fact that if you are employed and insured you will build protection against the cost of any pre-existing condition." This ignores that many people with disabilities and pre-existing conditions have tremendous difficulties getting and maintaining either employment or insurance, not to mention both. The assertion also seems to assume that they have the financial means to buy insurance.

McCain promises to "work with governors... to ensure those with pre-existing conditions" easy access to care. This "work" involves creation of high risk pools. McCain pledges to "limit premiums" and assist families below an unspecified income level. But in states that steer people with disabilities into such pools, this market-driven approach has resulted in high premiums, high deductibles, time-limited coverage, and often long waiting lists.

The Obama-Biden "Plan" recognizes the risks many people with disabilities face if they try to enter or reenter the workforce and have to give up assured health insurance under federal Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which include Medicare or Medicaid coverage. Obama-Biden's universal health care plan provides for "quality, affordable, portable coverage" if they take jobs and subsidies if they still cannot afford insurance.

Medicare.

Obama has co-sponsored the Medicare Waiting Period Act of 2007 (S.2102) to end the two-year wait for recently disabled persons to qualify for Medicare after qualifying for Social Security Disability Insurance. This proposal is important because that waiting period is a time when many people with disabilities have no health insurance. McCain has not taken a position on that bill.

Mental Health Parity.

Obama co-sponsored the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. This legislation would prohibit health plans from requiring higher deductibles or co-pays while offering mental health benefits more limited than the medical coverage they provide. McCain has not taken position on that bill.

State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Obama co-sponsored legislation that would allow states to enroll families with incomes up to 300% of the poverty level in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). This policy is vital for families with children who have expensive disability-related healthcare needs, children like Sarah Palin's son. McCain and his fellow Republicans in the Senate opposed the bill. McCain explained that he opposed this legislation because it did not include adequate provision for this expansion of the program.

According to the Wall Street Journal (September 4, 2008), Gov. Palin was "reluctant to support significant expansion" of Alaska's version of SCHIP, so she chose to accept families with incomes only "up to 175% of the poverty level." The Journal called Palin's policy "stingy compared with other states."

Meanwhile, the Anchorage Press (September 11, 2008) reports and an report from Alaska's Department of Health and Social Services verifies that Gov. Palin has not reduced the state's "Developmental Disabilities Waiting List, a list of individuals whose needs qualify them for assistance, but that the state doesn't have adequate funding to help." Alaskan disability rights advocates point out that the state government is awash in oil revenues. Palin has "never elucidated a health care plan or vision or any kind of connection to the disability community," said Jim Beck, executive director of Access Alaska, an advocacy and independent living services agency for people with disabilities. "We're really suffering from not having a big plan."

Palin has not made "health care one of her top priorities," reported the Wall Street Journal, but she does strongly support a "market- and business-driven" approach. Expanding health insurance "was less of an issue for Gov. Palin, much as it is less significant for Sen. McCain."

Nonetheless, McCain too embraces the ideological dogma that profit-oriented businesses will resolve the inequities in the U.S. health insurance system and somehow cover those who are currently uninsured or underinsured. Among those Americans struggling the most desperately are people with disabilities and families.

Community-Based Personal Assistance Services.

Many adults with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities confront another particularly harsh and unjust situation caused by public policies. Medicaid "long-term care" funding is skewed toward institutionalization or nursing home placement. But most of those adults and parents want people with disabilities of all ages to have the option to live in the community, with or near family and friends. Agreeing with them, Obama and Biden are co-sponsoring the Community Choice Act (CCA, S. 799) to allow individuals to decide where they will live by funding community-based personal assistance services. McCain opposes the bill. At a national presidential forum on disability issues in Columbus, Ohio, in July, he said it would cost too much. But studies have shown that community-based or independent living is almost always cheaper than institutionalization. It also ensures the self-determination prized by people with disabilities, including many people with Down syndrome. These competing policies could one day affect Palin's son who has Down syndrome. Disability advocates are asking if she will endorse CCA? And can she persuade McCain to vote for it?

Comments

[andrea11]

Please forgive the cynical tone, but does anybody know of Palin's record of support for "special-needs" children before giving birth to one? Has this been a long-term endeavor? Perhaps it doesn't matter, but just curious.

[DANISMOM]

my son is a quadriplegic due to a swimming accident when he was 17. he and his high school sweetheart cannot get married because he will lose his SSI and his medicaid would be at risk. They both live on a mere $27,000 per year. This current administration is about keeping people down, not lifting them up. These two are full time students trying to do the right thing and our government wants to penalize them. This would never happen in a progressive European country. Vote Obama/Biden!

[nonibright]

Thanks so much for a wonderful explanation!! I have a Down Syndrome daughter, soon to be 32 and she lives with me. I have a very supportive family and when needed, I have many volunteers to care for her at home!! Knowing that WHEN Obama/Biden get in the White House, they will also be there with legislation to help her when she needs it is very comforting.
Gov. Palin has help to care for her child, I've done it virtually alone. News for Gov. Palin; babies grow up!!!
Luckily, I live in CA and we have the Lanterman Act that funds programs for all developmentally disabled, from infant to elder. How lucky are we!

[sms1370]

This is the best analysis of disability policy and the campaign I've seen. It is thorough, accurate and really gets to the issues that people with disabilities in America worry about. Palin's appropriation of special needs kids to bolster her position only is insulting and disingenuous; if she really card about disability at all she wouldn't be running with mcCain who voted against SCHIP and whose health plan would put families with disabilities at great peril.

Longmore is astute here and as a well known disability historian, his analysis comes from a place of informed historical context and disability rights critique. Obama is the only option for Americans with disabilities; and that includes temporarily able-bodied Americans who may quickly find themselves facing the issues of people with disabilities.

Excellent piece. I wish there were others like (or that this could be reprinted) in the NYT, Washington Post, etc.

[politicalbob]

Stunningly concise, comprehensive, and helpful.
Would that all issue and constituen­cy-related campaign material were as well-organized.

P.w.d.s ought to forward, re-post, and print this for wider distribution-- especially to those who don't ask concern themselves disability rights. They might learn something.

The logic of this comparison shows the shallowness of thought and "spin" evidenced by one pair of candidates.

If only conservatives / Republicans actually put thought into their articulation of issues, we might have an actual debate--rather than a resurgence of neo-McCarthyistic hysteria.

[irishsob]

McCain/Palin talk about us as children (in spite of the fact that 90% of the disabled in the U.S. are adults) and have no policies, because they see us as children who need to be taken care of -- and exploited for political gain. Ask yourselves, when was the last time children were given much of a say in their care or exploitation?

McCain/Palin have the same "pity oriented" mindset that many of the political elite have when it comes to Pw/D.

As reprehensible as that is, it is partially our own fault for not acting like adults and getting out and voting in our enlightened self-interest.

If we simply did that, no longer would we be treated as children, but as the most powerful force in US politics -- as befits the largest minority group in America.

Thank you Prof. Longmore for reminding us of the reasons we need to get organized and out to vote.

Go Obama!

[jellinda]

outstanding explanation and comparison piece.

[wathomasson]

This is a very good analysis of how the two campaigns' positions differ. It's important to remember, however, that many of these issues do notjust affect people regarded as having disabilities. Many of the conditions that would make it difficult if not impossible to obtain health insurance at an affordible price should one be forced into the individual insurance market are not considered disabling. My high blood pressure is an example. And while anyone who requires assistance with major acitvities of daily living are disabled by definition, those my age (72) or older are likely to be described as "old" rather than "disabled." Indeed, that's why it is so common to describe the people affected as "seniors and PWDs" rather than by the simpler and more accurate "PWDs."

As you note, the news media have focussed on children and "compassion." I think that goes back to the fund-raising appeals of charities addressing disabling condiitons. These charities typically assume that their donors are temporarily able-bodied and likely to be moved by appeals to compassion for children. Appeals to those of us who may currently have a disabling condition are amazingly rare. But the effect is not only to limit fundraising but to give many people a false picture of the disability community.

[Anne1891]

Thanks for publishing this incisive comment by Paul Longmore. Remember, even more important than who is in the White House is having a strong disability rights movement that continues to push for full inclusion and access for all of us.

[DASChicago]

Enlighting article here, Thanks.

And as most, the issues pointed out are alarming. While one posters mentioned something so, so important, yes, you would think that the Health care policy would be the meat of their campaign, speicifically, because of Palin's DS child and McCain's historical injuries incurred as a, traitor-POW.

Conversely, their goals are to be disgracefully hollow and actually appearing to be proud of it.
What is becoming most unfortunate as well is that fact the Silly Sarah, is continuously putting "cracks in the floor," as they continue to go down! We've lived the low-road, duh.

President Obama will continue his focused statesmanship, direction and calm. That's the Change We need...We are on the High Road!

[kotipup]

Yes! Thank you! This is exactly where I've been coming from. I have a daughter who will be five years old next week, and who is severely brain injured due to strokes during infancy caused by a genetic disorder. We are doing Okay, but I know many others who are having real problems. A woman I know through an online support group, who lives in FL, was fired because she had to take off to take care of her infant son, who was having dozens of seizures a day. In Florida, they don't need cause to fire a person, so she had no recourse. I have no question that McCain WOULD NOT change that, and I fear voting for him would make the situation worse. He's voted against SCHIP, he does not support family leave acts. By voting for McCain, people would be sending the message that they don't care about those issues, and government would act accordingly. I can vouch that many parents of special needs kids will be voting in their own interests: Obama/Biden.

[neurologymatters]

Thanks for the article. A vote for Obama and Biden is for the people who too often are not acknowleged. McCain and Palin just don't care.

[UCSD101]

If you study the history of special needs legislation, you will find that nearly all of it, back to IDEA, PL 94-142, (TITLE I—AMENDMENTS TO THE INDI- VIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDU- CATION ACT)......­..........­....... was written and supported by Democrats.

Republicans, for the most part, have been opposed to the legislation for special needs kids.

However, I’m very glad that Palin would make this a project of hers.

It's all well and good to vote McCain/Palin for whatever reasons. It's a free country and all eligibles get a vote and that's fine.

But to vote the McCain/Palin ticket because of a belief that Palin's presence will increase even one single program in one single county of the U.S. is incredibly naive. .

For Positive, (Safe) Change and the Good Of America

VOTE: Obama/Biden 2008

[roshni]

Indeed, Palin's DS child would not fare very well if dependent on McCain's health care plan. Mccain's plan would tax health care benefits and provide a mere $5000 DIRECTLY TO THE INSURANCE CO to purchase helathcare.
People with pre-existing conditions or disabilities can easily be discriminated against.

[sueno]

Thank you for such a revealing and great article.
Why isn't this an ad?