Declaration for Independence

A Call to Transform Health and Long Term Services for Seniors and People with Disabilities



What We’re Reading: Aug. 31, 2015

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Disability Scoop Feds Clarify Rights Of Parents With Disabilities Technical assistance issued jointly this month from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services clarifies that children should not be taken from their moms or dads simply because a parent has a disability. Similarly, federal officials said that people with [...]

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What We’re Reading: July 27, 2015

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Last week was filled with celebrations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 25-year anniversary, Sunday, July 26. The president and vice president hosted several thousand new and returning advocates at the White House where the president made remarks in the East Room (see video and fact sheets).  The Departments of Labor, Justice, HHS/ACL, and Education also held separate [...]

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What We’re Reading: Feb. 16, 2015

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This week we’re catching up on recent Hill hearings on SSDI and mental health reform, plus state trends toward formularies and the like for prescription drugs for mental health conditions. The debate on SSDI reform is underway following last week’s Senate Budget Committee hearing on the long-term health of Social Security. POLITICO magazine is exploring [...]

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What We’re Reading: Feb. 9, 2015

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This week we’re reading a slew of new federal reports on SSDI, employment and mental health, plus making design and technology accessible. As Congress and the White House tee up their respective SSDI reform proposals, the National Council on Disability weighs in with their own: “Securing the Social Contract: Reforming Social Security Disability.” Also released [...]

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What We’re Reading: Feb. 2, 2015

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This week we’re reading more in the ongoing home care regulation story, the latest SS-DI participation rates plus commentary on the program’s design, and more. Disability Scoop reports that the U.S. Department of Labor has filed a notice of appeal contesting a recent federal court ruling that put a stop to a 2013’s regulation’s home [...]

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What We’re Reading: Jan. 12, 2015

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On day one, the new Congress launches an attack on Social Security. The rule hampers an otherwise routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program. Such a reallocation, in either direction, has taken place 11 times since 1968, according to Kathy Ruffing of the Center on Budget and [...]

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What We’re Reading: Oct. 27, 2014

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Blog: America’s Social Security benefits to increase 7.1 percent in 2015 (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 22) Americans who receive Social Security benefits will see a modest increase in their checks next year to cover higher consumer prices, according to the Social Security Administration. Retiree beneficiaries will see the first increase in their January payment. Those [...]

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What We’re Reading: July 21, 2014

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Bob Doles address home-schoolers on disability treaty (POLITICO, July 22) The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to approve the treaty Tuesday morning, but it’s not clear if it has enough votes to pass the full Senate. The treaty, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, was adopted in 2006 and signed by [...]

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Happy Anniversary, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, ADA and the ACA!

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Americans love anniversaries, whether it is the birth of our nation on July 4, our parents’ 50th, Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The year 2015 has a number of significant anniversaries of laws that have changed our country. Leonard Kirschner; July 30, 2015 On Aug. 14, 1935, in the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin [...]

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