The recent House budget resolution almost certainly requires action from the committee that oversees Medicaid. This level of savings can only be achieved through devastating changes to the Medicaid program. There is no other way. I urge the public to contact their elected officials, particularly senators, to oppose the budget resolution and all Medicaid cuts.
Medicaid is crucial to my life, yet its income and asset limits once forbade me from being financially stable and from getting married. Updates to Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Assistance to Workers with Disabilities program (MAWD) in 2021 changed that for me. I could marry the person I love.
Now, I wonder: Will I be forced to choose between life and love again? Without Medicaid, my medications would be over $6,000 per month, out-of-pocket, while on Medicare, after insurance. Will I have to choose between medications and debilitating pain again?
Medicaid allows a quality of life that permits me to work part time, save for the future and contribute to the economy. Disability requiring Medicaid for survival? It can happen to literally anyone. Cuts to Medicaid, especially at this point in our country’s history, are cruel and inhumane. We must minimize them to the benefit of all citizens.
Kaitlin A. Kerr
Munhall