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people with disabilities
New Bill Would Require Medicare to Cover 'Home Resiliency' Amid Worsening Climate Crisis
“Climate justice is a matter of disability justice," said Sen. Ed Markey. "It's time that we guarantee that seniors and people with disabilities can safely weather the climate crisis."
Jul 05, 2023
New legislation introduced Wednesday by Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Maxwell Frost would require Medicare to fully cover the cost of "home resiliency" equipment such as heat pumps, air conditioning, and solar batteries in an effort to keep seniors and people with disabilities safe from worsening climate chaos.
The Survival Aid for Emergencies (SAFE) Through Medicare Act was introduced shortly after Tuesday was tentatively deemed Earth's hottest day on record as large regions of the planet continue to suffer sweltering heatwaves that have put many lives at risk.
Such extreme weather is particularly dangerous to seniors and people with disabilities, and governments have been accused of ignoring the needs of those populations for years as the climate crisis intensifies. This year alone, at least seven extreme weather events in the U.S. have inflicted $1 billion or more in damage to homes, businesses, and other infrastructure.
"Climate justice is a matter of disability justice," Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement Wednesday. "When the temperature skyrockets and the power goes out, things like solar batteries and heat pumps become medical devices. The SAFE through Medicare Act will keep people safe in their homes and prevent medical tragedies. It's time that we guarantee that seniors and people with disabilities can safely weather the climate crisis."
"Safe housing is a key predictor of health and safety through disaster."
A one-page summary of the new legislation notes that "stronger storms and hotter heatwaves are wreaking havoc across our country, and for those with medical conditions, extreme weather disasters pose an additionally deadly threat."
"Disruptions to electric power—whether from hurricanes, wildfires, or other disasters—are a matter of life or death for many," the summary reads. "During Hurricane Maria, medical complications related to the power outage were responsible for nearly a third of the more than 4,500 deaths, and power outages were linked to more than 15% of over 100 deaths attributed to Hurricane Irma in 2017."
Frost (D-Fla.) said Wednesday that the SAFE Through Medicare Act "will help Florida seniors and folks with disabilities be protected during the worst mother nature can throw at us."
"Florida and our nation deserve a disaster-ready healthcare system that will help working people and seniors be able to afford to safely weather any storm," the Florida lawmaker added. "It's unacceptable that in a state where we regularly live through hurricanes, flooding, and severe rain, folks on fixed incomes are one natural disaster away from losing the life-sustaining medication or medical devices they need."
If passed, the legislation would require the secretary of Health and Human Services to decide which equipment and services are "medically necessary" for Medicare recipients in the case of climate-related extreme weather.
The bill summary emphasizes that people on Medicare "represent up to 90% of the population dependent upon electricity for in-home medical equipment" and are "disproportionately vulnerable to the consequences of living without home infrastructure like air conditioning, which becomes deadly during increasingly severe heatwaves."
A 2020 study estimated that heat-related deaths for elderly people in the U.S. nearly doubled over the previous two decades, rising to a record 19,000 in 2018. During heatwaves across the U.S. last summer, dozens of elderly people died in homes that lacked air conditioning.
Batul Hassan, policy manager at the Climate and Community Project, endorsed Markey and Frost's legislation, saying in a statement that it would "reduce avoidable suffering and sickness and ensure that people are able to weather climate emergencies with dignity."
"Safe housing is a key predictor of health and safety through disaster," said Hassan. "As climate disasters like heatwaves, air quality crises, flooding and more—the culmination of decades of delayed response to the climate crisis—increase in frequency and intensity, bills like Senator Markey's Survival Aid For Emergencies Through Medicare Act are critical for making sure peoples' health needs are proactively anticipated and met."
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When Courage and Love Smash Unexpected Barriers
The gentle soul and thoughtful man I know as Councilman Chris Hinds was able to take the moment of personal humiliation and struggle and turn it into a vibrant teachable moment for millions of people.
Mar 04, 2023
You may not have seen the news or you may have forgotten all about it by now. Last month, Denver City Councilman and candidate for re-election Chris Hinds was forced to crawl up onto the stage for a scheduled debate or forfeit the matching election funds from the city. The story drew attention not only locally but throughout the country and even globally. Councilman Hinds has used a wheelchair since 2008 when an accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.
Many people have wondered why any person would feel forced or compelled to respond as he did to the barrier presented. I didn’t. Our society remains grossly and intentionally uninformed about what it is like to face physical barriers due to a disability. We passed the Americans With Disabilities Act, the ADA, 29 years ago yet we still build and maintain most buildings and even our cities to accommodate people without physical disabilities. Often, until a property’s owner is confronted by a legal challenge to become ADA compliant, barriers remain unchanged.
I wasn’t in Denver when this week’s barrier-busting occurred. I was sitting in my daughter’s home relaxing on the couch when my daughter asked me if I knew anything about the disabled man she saw crawling on that stage. What? I knew who it had to be when she asked that question. Chris Hinds is the only man in a wheelchair I know who is actively campaigning right now. I pulled up the story, and when I saw and read the piece, I was dumbfounded. I was also angry and horrified. How could a venue known to celebrate the diversity of the Denver community never have needed to accommodate anyone in a wheelchair before? A dancer’s dream, that stage has launched careers and helped break cultural and economic barriers. Yet on that evening, no one had even considered a person in a wheelchair needing access. That was more than an oversight. It had never been necessary for that stage to allow disabled people to dance.
\u201cA theater\u2019s lack of wheelchair accessibility forced Denver City Council member Chris Hinds to hoist himself onto a debate stage on Monday. \n\n\u201cI felt like a circus monkey,\u201d Hinds said. https://t.co/CZAHf8R8ot\u201d— The Washington Post (@The Washington Post) 1676639651
Yet, the gentle soul and thoughtful man I know as Councilman Chris Hinds was able to take the moment of personal humiliation and struggle and turn it into a vibrant teachable moment for millions of people. Undoubtedly, that particular venue will rectify the lack of access to their stage. They have already said so. It remains to be seen if the wider lesson for stages and performance venues everywhere will be truly absorbed and learned. In 2023, it ought not be necessary for any disabled person to point out that need.
Chris said today that sometimes he thinks people view the disabled as "less than" other elected leaders when they advocate for the disability community as if it's the only issue for which they are capable of advocating. Funny thing is, I see Chris as more able than most elected officials to truly understand what makes a community more fully integrated for all its people. Most disabled people understand that being highly competent in as many ways as possible is the only way to be seen and heard over the often unconscious and immediate impact their physical limitations make so obvious to the non-disabled. Even people who consider themselves compassionate can be unaware of the dynamics of their own reactions to those who are disabled.
Disabled men and women are candidates for office like Chris Hinds. More need to run, and more need to be elected. Disabled men and women are also speakers, dancers, painters, sculptors, authors, business leaders, and more. It turns out disabled people are actually complete and full human beings. And until we can actually embrace our diversity, we are all disabled by our prejudice and our arrogance.
I was at a community meeting this week with Councilman Chris Hinds and candidates Tony Pigford and Sarah Parady. Beforehand I had written a note to Chris, and I read it to him there for everyone to hear:
February 25, 2023
I have had scoliosis since I was in my 20s. It has been progressive, and doctors told us in the 1990s that I would be in a wheel chair by the time I was 55 years old. I have fought with walkers, canes and more for many years to keep myself walking. It hurts. I cannot do the things I used to do. But when I am left to hoist myself into the back of an uber ride in a huge GMC truck as my husband pushes on my ass, I feel humiliated and alone. It’s not very ladylike or even decent to feel like your body won’t do something and therefore you cannot do whatever that thing is.
I was sitting in my daughter’s home when she asked me about a news story she was seeing. She mentioned your name, Chris. I quickly read the story and saw the photo and pounded my own leg with rage. My throat hurt and I was there with you, trying so hard to do the thing I could not do – and I was broken. Then you turned it into something others might learn from. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and the crookedness of my back.
Chris, you are a hero. My hero.
Peace and power... together,
Donna
My hope, my humble ask is that everyone who reads this essay will share it and donate to the effort to make sure these wonderful people are part of making sure every human being in Denver is valued and protected equally. A great city deserves no less. Great people do too.
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