Reason 2 to Vote Obama: Support Disabled

I started my 18 reasons to vote for Obama campaign last week because I feel that it is important to vote FOR a candidate rather than AGAINST someone. Hence the 18 reasons to vote FOR Obama instead of 18 reasons to reject McCain.

As part of this blogging campaign that I hope you’ll join, I’m poring over information from his issues page at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/. I hope you’ll spend some time there. Be sure to look at the PDF files in addition to the pages.

This week’s reason to Vote Obama is because he has a good sounding plan to support and empower disabled people in a way that neither party have been able to do. Some of things that a President Obama would try to work with Congress on include:

Support Universal Screening: Roughly 90 percent of infants in the United States are screened for various potentially disabling or life-threatening conditions, but fewer than half the states screen all infants for the American College of Medical Genetics’ full recommended panel of 29 disorders. Many of these conditions, if caught early, can be treated before they result in permanent impairments or even death. And parents are often unaware that the tests are available. Barack Obama believes that we should ensure that all states have comprehensive newborn screening programs. In addition, Obama supports setting a national goal to provide rescreening for all two-year-olds – the age at which some conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, begin to appear. Part of Obama’s early childhood intervention plan will be directed at coordinating fragmented community programs to help provide parents with information about screening for disabilities as infants and again as two-year olds. Achieving universal screening is essential so that disabilities can be identified early enough to help children and families get the special supports and resources they need.

Authorize a Comprehensive Study of Students with Disabilities and Transition to Work and Higher Education: There has not been a comprehensive study of evaluating access to higher education or transition to the workforce by students with disabilities. As president, Barack Obama will initiate such a study and task his Secretary of Education with researching: the barriers that keep students with disabilities from seeking and completing higher education; the barriers that prevent students from making a direct transition to work; the extent to which students with disabilities are able to access loans and grants; reasons college students with disabilities drop out at a higher rate; and best practices from schools that have effectively recruited and graduated students with disabilities that can be implemented more widely.

Improving Mental Health Care: Mental illness affects approximately one in five American families. Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home with record levels of combat stress. The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that untreated mental illnesses cost the U.S. more than $100 billion per year. Barack Obama is a supporter of the bipartisan Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, and, as a state senator, Obama helped pass a mental health parity bill that requires coverage for serious mental illnesses to be provided on the same terms and conditions as are applicable to other illnesses and diseases. As president, Obama will support mental health parity so that coverage for serious mental illnesses is provided on the same terms and conditions as other illnesses and diseases. For veterans, Obama will improve mental health care at every stage of military service—recruitment, deployment, and reentry into civilian life.

Some people will question the expense of these measures. I have two responses to that. First, it is a basic principle of Catholic Social Teaching that a society should be judged on how it treats the most vulnerable. Aside from the unborn, (where I don’t see any candidate with a viable plan to drastically reduce abortions) who is more vulnerable in our society than the disabled? Secondly, if we can spend $2 Billion a week occupying a country that doesn’t want us, we can afford the measures listed above.