Maddow Shares History of ADAPT and Disability Rights Activists’ Role in Healthcare Debate

Rachel Maddow, political commentator, author and host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, recently shared the history of ADAPT, a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, and their leadership role in protesting the proposed caps and cuts to Medicaid in the Senate health-care-reform bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.

In a June 22, 2017 Press Alert, ADAPT announced that 60 members would stage a protest in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) to protest significant cuts to Medicaid “which will greatly reduce access to medical care and home and community-based services for elderly and disabled Americans who will either die or be forced into institutions.”

“To say people will die under this law is not an exaggeration,” said Mike Oxford, an ADAPT organizer from Kansas. “Home and community-based services are what allow us to do our jobs, live our lives and raise our families. Without these services, many disabled and elderly Americans will die. We won’t let that happen.”