A group of 50 Texans in wheelchairs are among the crowd outside the Washington D.C. office of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, protesting his stance on the Affordable Care Act.
ADAPT of Texas’ Jennifer McPhail said their group is asking Boehner to support the reforms for long-term care for the disabled that are contained in the ACA.
"People that need assistance to live at home and in the community with dressing and bathing, cooking, cleaning -- those kinds of things that people traditionally think of a home healthcare," McPhail said. "We have a lot of reforms that make it easier and cheaper for people to live at home."
McPhail said Medicaid would typically cover these types of services but only in an institutionalized setting. She said without the funding provided in the ACA, thousands of Texas would lose a piece of their freedom.
"It means that thousands of Texans would lose the ability to choose to stay with their families and in their communities working and contributing to the tax base," McPhail said.
ADAPT groups from all across the country delivered Boehner a letter asking him to reconsider his stance.
"They decided rather than meet with us that they were going to lock us out," McPhail said.
If Congress cannot break through the impasse, large sections of the federal government will be shut down.
