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Easter Seals Meets with White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Other Top Leaders to Make Sure Families Can Continue to Access the Critical Services and Supports Medicaid Provides

Easter Seals Meets with White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Other Top Leaders to Make Sure Families Can Continue to Access the Critical Services and Supports Medicaid Provides

Representatives from Easter Seals visit the White House

Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 12, 2011

Today, Easter Seals and three families living with disabilities from Arkansas, Ohio and Texas visited the White House to meet with several senior leaders—including Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, John Carson, Deputy Assistant to the President, Jeff Crowley, Senior Advisor on Disability Policy, and Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President. The group discussed the positive outcomes for children with disabilities, their families, and society through access to health and developmental services provided by the Medicaid program, as well as reaffirmed why Medicaid must not be cut in current budget negotiations.

President Obama continues to convene budget talks at the White House with a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders to negotiate a compromise on deficit reduction measures that could include cuts to Medicaid. Medicaid and other federal programs provide critical – often life-saving – services to millions of Americans living with disabilities. Members of Congress are considering budget proposals that would slash funding and restructure these important programs, potentially eliminating the safety net they provide.

“We’re here to discuss the essential role Medicaid plays in the lives of children with disabilities and their families. Each year, Easter Seals serves more than 1.2 million people with disabilities, all of whom will likely rely on the Medicaid program at some time in their lives,” said James E. Williams, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer, Easter Seals. “Medicaid has already been cut and children with disabilities will be harmed by any additional cuts to benefits or provider reimbursement rates. Our families want to help put a human face on Medicaid by sharing their personal experiences, how they’re lives have been forever changed because of the program.”

During today’s White House meeting, three working families that have children with disabilities who directly benefit from Medicaid and Easter Seals disability experts shared how individuals and their families rely on Medicaid for stability and basic heath needs and spoke to what the loss of Medicaid could mean for millions.

Meet Shannon

Shannon, age 12, and her mother, Roxanne Eaton (Columbus, Ohio). Support from Medicaid helped Shannon, who has Cerebral Palsy, receive therapies to be more independent, which in turn made it possible for Roxanne to return to work.

Meet Al

Al, age 8, and his parents, Dr. James Hunt and DeAnn Hunt (Little Rock, Arkansas). Born with Down syndrome and a heart condition, Al received physical, occupational and speech therapy through Medicaid when their private insurance ran out. He is now attending public school.

Meet Chelsy and Rebeka

Rebeka, age 5, and Chelsey, age 3, and their parents, Joselyn Martinez and Jorge Escobedo (McAllen, Texas). Medicaid helped them meet their many medical needs, including Rebeka’s feeding tube and therapies to learn to walk and chew.

Medicaid offers the stability families living with disabilities need to survive. Without it, Shannon’s mom couldn’t have gone back to work, Al wouldn’t be in a mainstreamed classroom and Rebeka would not be hitting the developmental milestones she is today.

About Easter Seals

Easter Seals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical and mental disabilities, and other special needs. Through therapy, training, education and support services, Easter Seals creates life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities can live, learn, work, and play in their communities. To learn more visit http://www.easterseals.com or http://www.MaketheFirstFiveCount.org.

Media Contacts:

Kristen Barnfield, Easter Seals

kbarnfield(at)easterseals(dot)com

P: 312.551.7147

Rachel Talen, Easter Seals

rtalen(at)easterseals(dot)com

P: 312.551.7246

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West meets tough opposition to farm subsidies

Washington and Brussels were last night trying to drive a wedge between a group of more than 20 developing countries which are holding out for deep cuts in the west’s lavish farm subsidies.

Despite the personal intervention of the US president, George Bush, the developing countries held firm yesterday and delayed the start of talks on agriculture, which are seen as crucial to a trade liberalisation deal in Cancun.

The EU, meanwhile, warned former colonies in Africa and in the Caribbean that their joining the so-called Group of 21 could well endanger their privileged access to Europe’s single market. Washington told Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala that if they left the G21 they would get a “sweetheart deal” giving them increased access to America’s $10 trillion economy.

“At every ministerial meeting we see the US and the EU playing divide and rule while claiming to act in the interests of developing countries”, said Duncan Green, of the Catholic aid agency Cafod. “Nobody believes them any more.”

Ahead of this week’s meeting of ministers from the World Trade Organisation’s 146 member states, President Bush contacted the leaders of four key developing countries, India, Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa, in an attempt to prevent their opposition of a deal on agriculture agreed by Washington and Brussels.

Brazil has led the opposition to the modest concessions offered by the EU and the US, and has become the target of Washington and Brussels, seen as the main obstacle to the west’s agenda.

Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, stormed out of a late-night meeting with Washington’s main trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick, after the Americans demanded Brazil withdrew the G21′s alternative proposal on agriculture. Mr Amorim told ministers yesterday that the G21 represented 63% of the world’s farmers: “Our proposed framework incorporates significant negotiating positions [and] has been carefully designed, technically as well as politically. It cannot be ignored. Already we see a new dynamic which hopefully can lead to real negotiations.”

The hardline stance of Brazil and its allies forced the EU and the US to plan separate meetings with the G21 yesterday before the agriculture negotiations. “It’s very difficult to put the hammer on countries like China, India and Brazil,” said one senior trade source. “They are powerful separately, let alone together.”

The deputy US trade representative, Peter Allgeier, warned that all member states would have to compromise for a successful deal. He said he was perplexed by the G21 which includes both large, food exporting countries, such as Brazil and Argentina, interested in finding new markets for their produce, and countries such as India, which traditionally favour protection for their small farmers. “It is not immediately obvious that they are a coherent group.”

Washington’s attempts to appease anger in the developing world through concessions on cotton also ran into difficulties. West African countries are holding out for real cuts in the $4bn (£2.6bn) the US spends yearly subsidising its cotton growers who flood world markets with their surplus produce, depressing the prices for reportedly more efficient producers in Benin, Chad, Burkino Faso, and Mali.

Sources in Cancun said that the US position was made more difficult because it had to get any deal on cotton through Congress, where the chairperson of the influential senate agriculture committee came from Mississippi, the biggest cotton producing state.

Fatiou Akplogan, Benin’s trade minister, said: “If nothing is done urgently this could lead to the total loss of revenue for our producers, an increase in poverty and destruction of our economic system.”

Yesterday, the director-general of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi, took charge of the negotiations.

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