Welcome to March NICIL'S Fall/Winter Hours Monday - Friday, 8:30a.m. to 4:30p.m. Dear MMW Members,   We wanted to share with you a new toolkit that AgeOptions recently produced.  The toolkit is entitled “No Insurance? Health Care Options for Individuals Age 55-64 Without Insurance.”  This toolkit contains information about health care resources for individuals without insurance coverage, including: ·         “Safety net” organizations and programs that provide access to health care ·         Affordable Care Act provisions that will assist these individuals in obtaining coverage ·         Where to go for information and assistance in finding health care options   In addition to providing information for people who are 55-64 (and therefore not yet eligible for Medicare), many of the resources in this guide are also applicable to others who do not have insurance coverage,  individuals who are seeking assistance due to losing Illinois Cares Rx or cuts in Medicaid, etc.     Please download the toolkit on our website here, and share with your networks: http://www.ageoptions.org/whatwedo/documents/FINALPreMedicareToolkit.7.10.12.pdf     Thanks,   Erin   Erin Weir, Manager of Health Care Access ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DREDF Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund A New Video Advocacy Tool in Our Campaign for Disability Healthcare Justice DREDF is pleased to announce the launch of HEALTHCARE STORIES-free, downloadable short videos that illustrate as no policy paper can, the obstacles and barriers that still stand in the way of getting appropriate health care for many people with disabilities.These short video stories feature people from diverse backgrounds and with various disabilities who speak candidly about their experiences accessing health care-from lack of accessible equipment such as exam tables and weight scales, to ineffective communication because Sign Language interpreters are not provided, to encounters with medical professionals who have little or no disability awareness or training, to outright substandard care. Such persistent barriers to health care affect our health and wellbeing, and the quality and length of our lives.By sharing their stories, real people add an essential human dimension to a large body of research showing that people with disabilities experience health disparities and healthcare inequality. The stories also shine a bright light on the need for long-overdue reforms-for disability healthcare justice. Use the Videos to Make Change We encourage advocates and others to use the video stories to focus attention on these common barriers to care and on how they can be eliminated. For example: Advocates can use the stories to support legislative and policy reform Healthcare professionals can use the stories to make the case for building disability capacity in professional healthcare education and training programs Educators can use the stories to augment curricula for public health and health policy programs Speakers can present the stories at conferences, workshops, and seminars concerned with disability, health, health disparities, aging, and related topics Meet some of the people behind the stories-Larry Voss is a wheelchair user who faced disability stereotypes upon learning that he had cancer. He recalls, "So the first surgeon I saw recommended a procedure called a hemipelvectomy, which involves removing part of my pelvis and my entire leg. He expressed his opinion that he didn't see why that would make a big deal to me, since I wasn't walking anyway..."Mary Delgado, also a wheelchair user, remarks that because no accessible weight scale is available where she receives healthcare, "I've not been weighed...for 20 years." Yet weight measurement is considered a basic healthcare metric and is critical, for example, in providing care to people with diabetes, pregnant women, and in preparation for surgery and anesthesia even as recent research shows that only about 3 percent of primary care doctor's offices have accessible weight scales.When they were expecting their first child, Nick Ziemer, who is deaf, requested a Sign Language interpreter so he could communicate with his wife and the instructor during a birthing class. He was told, "No, we cannot provide an interpreter for that class," a decision that could have divided a family during one of its most cherished events. The Videos are for You to Use! The videos and other materials can be found at our HEALTHCARE STORIES website.Please watch the videos and tell us what you think.They can also be found on DREDF's YouTube channel and at the HEALTHCARE STORIES Channel on VimeoWatch for additional videos as well as a series on the healthcare experiences of people with development disabilities.