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Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax creditsThere’s been a lot of news about the premiums for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) going up. Premiums are a monthly fee that someone pays to have insurance. Congress chose to stop giving a tax credit that helps pay for ACA premiums. Tax credits are one way the government gives people money to help pay for something. The amount of money people pay for premiums will go up next month once the tax credits stop. That means many people will lose their health insurance in January. Even more people will lose their health insurance in the next ten years. This hurts many members of our community. Public Charge rule changesAnother problem that is being talked about again is the Public Charge rule. Public charge is the idea that immigrants who need help from the government should not get to live in the U.S. The U.S. has had laws about public charge for many years. The law that made public charge was based on eugenics. Eugenics is the idea that only some kinds of people should get to be alive. ASAN thinks all laws based on eugenics are bad. Laws like public charge hurt people with disabilities. In 2019, President Trump changed the rules about public charge to make them stricter. These new rules kept immigrants who might need government help, like Medicaid or SNAP, from moving to America. It also stopped immigrants already in America who needed government help from getting green cards. Green cards are government documents that let immigrants legally work and live in the United States. ASAN spoke against this rule when President Trump first made these bad changes. The idea of public charge already treats people with disabilities unfairly. It says immigrants who need help, like immigrants with disabilities, should not get to live in the U.S. But the Public Charge rule that President Trump made hurts people with disabilities even more. In 2022, the government made some changes to the Public Charge rule. Those changes let immigrants use some government help while getting to stay in the U.S. Some of these government help programs are:
The 2022 version was better than the 2019 rule. There were still parts that hurt immigrants with disabilities in the 2022 rule. Now, the government is trying to undo the 2022 changes. The government wants there to be no rules at all about what counts as “public charge”. Instead, they want to leave it up to immigration officers to decide. That means immigration officers can choose which immigrants are a public charge. Immigration officers could treat disabled people unfairly as much as they want. These changes would hurt disabled immigrants and disabled people with immigrant family members. It would make it harder for disabled people immigrating to America. It would make it harder for disabled people and their families already in America to get a green card. It would make it harder for disabled people to get supports they need if they have immigrant family members. This is not fair, and it is not okay. HUD’s Continuum of Care ProgramsThere is also a problem happening at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD is the part of the government in charge of housing in the U.S. HUD is trying to take away money from their Continuum of Care (CoC) programs. Continuum of Care (CoC) programs help unhoused people get and keep homes. Many disabled people use the Continuum of Care programs. These are important programs that help people with disabilities find housing and stay in the community. HUD’s changes would make many people using the programs homeless. Congress must make sure HUD will still pay the money needed for Continuum of Care programs. This action alert explains how you can ask your elected officials to help. Resource roundupLast month, ASAN put out some new resources. One is a statement about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new page on autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the part of the government in charge of trying to stop diseases. The CDC’s new page still tries to say autism and vaccines might be connected. But we know this is a lie. Our statement explains what the CDC’s new page gets wrong about autism and vaccines. ASAN also put out a statement about the Advisory Council on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The Advisory Council on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is a group of vaccine experts who help the government make choices about vaccines. We talked about the wrong information ACIP said at their meeting about vaccines. These are both important resources because vaccines save lives. Spreading incorrect information about vaccines might make people not take them. That hurts everyone. We also have an action alert about protecting disabled students’ rights here. It explains why moving the Department of Education to a different department is against the law. We talk about why moving the Department of Education would hurt disabled students. Thank you for reading about the issues our community is facing. Thank you for taking action, and asking your community to take action too. Together, we can push for a better world for all disabled people!
Autistic Self Advocacy Network PO Box 66122
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