inMotion Magazine

Finding Answers 23 Public Act 18-69 goes into effect on January 1, 2019. An important milestone in the national effort for prosthetic parity, the Connecticut law is the first state prosthetic parity bill to pass since 2013, and the first since the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2014. What was the secret? How did two inexperienced amputees become successful legislative advocates? “Maybe it was because we didn’t know it couldn’t be done,” Herb suggests. “We attracted support from people who then took ownership of our bill,” Brenda adds. “Our champions in the House and Senate took up the cause and worked hard behind the scenes as well as on the floor.” Herb agrees it was the efforts of many, not just the two of them: “First, Brenda joined me, then legislators came on board; next, we enlisted fellow amputees, their loved ones, prosthetists, doctors, nurses, physical therapists and, during the final days, unassociated lobbyists in the hallway of the Capitol helped us too.” Their secret for success? Herb sums it up: “I may have started out on this effort alone, but I didn’t finish alone.” Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-CT), Herb Kolodny and Brenda Novak