It is hard to believe that the #NotALuxury movement is celebrating its first birthday. Last August was a flurry of phone calls, planning meetings and social media pushes as we tried to gain traction in the fight against the detrimental medicare proposals. I remember Dave being wary about gaining enough support to snag the requisite 100,000 petition signatures. Confident in our abilities to spread the word and secure the untapped advocacy potential of the limb loss community, I assured him that we would crush our goal.
#NotALuxury began slowly with a few tweets and Facebook posts, but it quickly morphed into an international movement. Social media was flooded with images and outcries of frustrations from amputees of all races, religions and economic backgrounds. To date, we are the ONLY disability oriented petition to ever reach the 100,000 signature requirement. Not only did we meet the threshold for a response, but we did so in 17 days.
The White House responded and Medicare tabled their draft proposal. A committee of federal employees has been convened to review and to develop best practices for lower limb prosthetics. We won't know the results of these closed door meetings until a report is issued (no timeline has been provided.) Right now the movement is relatively idle, but the community is empowered through our history of coming together.
Yesterday Dave and I recorded another episode of Amp'd, where we celebrated the #NotALuxury movement while taking a look ahead at potential outcomes and struggles. Enjoy!
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