Illustration by Jordan W. Martin
I'm a registered Democrat in Pennsylvania and for the first time ever my primary vote actually matters. It'exciting, but scary. What if I choose wrong, and my vote is the vote that pushes my candidate into the White House, where he or she ends up being another clunker? Plus, I have a responsibility to figure out which candidate would do the best job on issues that matter most to the disability community. Given that none of the candidates, to my knowledge, has spoken the words "disability issues" on Meet the Press or even The Tonight Show, this is a harder task than it seemed at first.
For openers I asked other Pennsylvanians with disabilities who they're voting for. Bill Beck, a wheelchair-using advocate with CP I know from my old organizing days, works at Freedom Valley Disability Enablement and lives in the Philly suburb of Broomall. He strikes me as a moderate guy, so I figured he could give me a feel for how folks are choosing their candidates.
"My party already determined its outcome, so I'm probably voting for McCain," says Beck, 56. "But I'm considering switching my party and voting in the Democratic primaries. The Democrats have exciting choices," says Beck.
Will Beck become an Obamacan or a Hillraiser? Perhaps. But besides Obama's shine and Clinton's sizzle, what actual issues are important to Beck, or for that matter, to all of us?
"Disability is in my consideration," he says, "but it's not the only factor. I care about the war. Housing. How the U.S. is seen by other countries. Also the economy, jobs, violence, the environment, education, and of course, health care."
To bone up on the issues, I visited the American Association of People with Disabilities website (www.aapd.com), where I found a bonanza of info on each presidential candidate, including contact info.
AAPD worked with such disability groups as ADAPT and Self Advocates Becoming Empowered to compile a comprehensive list of questions that get at each candidate's position on issues ranging from employment to voting. Are these issues organized in order of importance to AAPD and the groups that put the questions together?
"They are not," says Anne Sommers, policy counsel for AAPD. "We tried to represent the policy interests of the entire cross-disability community, so certain of the issues will strike a chord with more people than others." Some people with disabilities may be moved by which candidates participated the most with AAPD-sponsored activities, while others will want the nitty-gritty details on a specific policy.
Of the three contenders who still have a shot at becoming president in November, only the two Democrats actually completed the questionnaire. But on Nov. 2, AAPD held a candidate forum and most of the big hitters showed up, including Clinton and McCain, who participated by phone. Obama, however, was a no-show. So maybe Clinton's dedication to our community is more solid. But then Obama has a strong outreach to people with disabilities, including holding conference calls specifically for members of our community who are interested in his positions.
Obama's team, which includes disability advocates, sent out a press release trumpeting his support of the Community Choice Act. That's great, but Clinton is an original co-sponsor and Obama is not. So which is better, strong outreach to our community, or consistently embracing our issues?
After talking to Beck and wading through all the info on AAPD's election resource website, my next step was to explore the disability issues closest to my own heart. Two domestic issues will influence my vote in both the primary and the general election.
First, I'd like to ensure we don't get any more undoers on federal courts and the Supreme Court. "Undoer" is my own term for those justices who undo civil rights laws. For example, recent decisions have successfully undone Title I of the ADA to such a degree that only 3 percent of people with disabilities claiming job discrimination actually win their cases. And my second big issue is health care, which touches all Americans, regardless of disability status. Since neither Dem candidate will make far-right appointees to anything, rather than delving into the issue of balancing the courts, I decided to focus on health care.
Like just about everyone who's employed full time, my premiums are out of control, and despite having MS, I've actually considered dropping my policy altogether. So who can deliver the goods on letting me keep more of the money I earn?
After exploring Clinton, Obama and McCain's websites, I was surprised to find McCain's plan resonates with me. For McCain, it's all about tax credits. Under his plan, I'd be able to recoup about $2,500 of what I spend on health care at tax time.
That sounds pretty good to me! But not so fast. ...
"Tax credits are nice for people who pay taxes," says Lucy Spruill, a wheelchair user with spina bifida who teaches a class on health care policy for the University of Pittsburgh. "And that right off excludes most people with disabilities, who either don't have any taxable income or don't have enough to pay taxes." Spruill, 63, has advocated for single-payer universal health care since the early '90s, when she supported Clinton's plan as an organizer with our state's chapter of Health Care for All.
But, I confessed to Spruill, I'm not sure what single-payer means. "Think of Medicare," she says. "Medicare is single-payer and so we have a large working model for a single-payer plan here in the United States, although we don't call it that."
Spruill says she'd love a universal model, similar to what Clinton proposes, so you'd think she supports Clinton. But she's actually in Obama's camp, even though his plan isn't completely single-payer or mandatory, and thus not truly universal.
"I think Hillary's plan is probably a very good plan — she's very smart about health care policy," says Spruill. "However, I don't think it stands a snowball's chance in hell of passing. Ever."
Spruill says Obama's plan has a better shot because it is incremental, piecemeal. And it's a good plan because it will institute something called "community rating" over something else called "experience rating." Right now insurance companies decide our premiums based on small groups we're lumped in, and most small groups include a disparate amount of people with huge health care needs. Community rating, however, takes a very large group of people, like a whole state, and divides health care costs over that larger number of people, which means more healthy people supporting those who aren't, and thus lower rates for everyone. Also, community rating would make "pre-existing condition" clauses obsolete. "What's happening now is essentially the insurance companies have it rigged. They set up the pools of people covered so as to maximize their rates," says Spruill.
So let's review.
The centerpiece for McCain's health care plan is a tempting tax credit that leaves out most people with disabilities. Clinton's is closest to a single-payer universal health care system, but it's mandatory and probably won't pass. Obama's is a series of tweaks and incremental changes that implements community rating, which should both cover those currently without insurance and lower most everyone's premiums.
Yet I'm still not sure who I'll touch the screen for on Pennsylvania's primary day, although it'll probably be Obama. Hillary's competent and has a proven record of supporting our issues — and it would be awesome having a woman president. But Obama has a strong outreach to our community, a health care plan that might actually pass, and is inspiring — he makes me cry.
No Clinton has ever made me cry ... at least not in a good way.
Besides health care, I'm still concerned about seating judges who won't dismantle civil rights laws like the ADA. I have no problem voting across party lines — I voted twice for Republican Gov. Tom Ridge and about a gazillion times for Republican Sen. Arlen Specter. But I don't want a president who appoints conservative judges, as McCain says he'd do. Both Dems say they won't. So come Nov. 4, I'm voting blue, regardless of who's nominated.
To keep current on the presidential primary campaign, check out Josie Byzek's blog, "Tremors of Intent."
