Call to save access to powerized mobility TODAY!!!!

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
- bob dylan (hey, i saw him less than a week ago...)

Today, PLEASE call your senators and congress folks and ask them to take complex rehab wheelchairs out of the competitive bidding pool.


After you make your calls/send an email, record it at
http://www.vgmdclink.com/switchboard/

1. Ask your members of Congress to support passage of HR 2231
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2231 and S 2931
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-2931


2. Also ask your Representative to sign the Dear Colleague Letter,
http://www.aahomecare.org/associations/3208/files/House%20Medicare%20letter.pdf


Contact information for your member of Congress is at
http://www.ncartcoalition.org/

lower left hand of page, type in your zipcode


-Background, etc.,
http://tinyurl.com/6a7x5s

-Additional information at
http://tinyurl.com/6hggdk

What's New, http://www.aahomecare.org/

Today, Fight for your Medical Equipment Rights

Today, Fight for your Medical Equipment Rights by listening to a Webinar about Drastic Medicare Cuts,

ON THURSDAY, Call Congress!



Marilyn Hamilton (The founder and inventor of quickie wheelchairs) is leading a national campaign to stop the cutback for Medicare Reimbursements on Power Wheelchairs. This drastic budget cut is targetted at the most basic needs of any human being - the right to move, independently. While the cost of everything - from Gas to Food, the government wants to cut spending for the most severely physically disabled folks. The people who need and benefit the most from powered mobility, are often the least able to afford it, due to disability, poverty, or other factors. The fact that most powered chairs are priced at over 10 grand, (A manual lightweight chair can easily cost 5 grand.)

Medicare dispursement rates are often used by private insurance (and state run, like Maine's Dirigo Plan) to set their own reimbursement rates. So it will effect other folks besides those on Medicare. It will also stunt future research and development on a myriad of other Adaptive or Assistive Mobility Equipment. Critical technology which would filter down in subsequent generations of cheaper chairs will not be developed,

This may afect you now, but as we all age, even those paralympians are going to want to give their torn rotator cuffs a break. Sunrise Medical (the company which now owns Quickie and some other chair brands) is sponsoring the event, but Marilyn Hamilton (who actually retired from Sunrise) is one of the disability rights movement's legends and whose history mirrors the DRM's history.

The webinar is Today at 2 pm - But there will be an archive of the Webinar on sunrisemedical.com and probably on my site as well as others, (still pending...) For info on the webinar about how Competitive Bidding will impact consumers

Register Here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/144768277
-May 21st, National Call in, voice your concerns and request help to
carve out complex rehab from competitive bidding


The webinar will more than likely give this out - but the # is (202) 224-3121.
The sponsor list may be completely out of date - but a bunch of good folks are partnering with Sunrise Medical.:

-ADAPT
-American Association of People with Disabilities
-America Paraplegia Society
-Boston Medical Center
-Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
-Kennedy-Krieger
-National Council on Independent Living
-National Spinal Cord Injury Association
-United Spinal Association
-Self Advocates Becoming Empowered
-Shepherd Center
-Paralyzed Veterans Association
-Uppity Disability dot Net
-ILUSA.com

for more detailed info check out Sunrise Medical's website.

More Info soon.