Please read, and I invite you to act:
I want to take a moment this morning to talk about the importance of Medicaid and ask each one of you to contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives to protect this vital form of health coverage.
Recently, the House and Senate Budget Committees have passed budget resolutions that propose gigantic cuts to Medicaid. In the House, the resolution directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, to cut a minimum of $880 billion in federal spending. In the Senate, the resolution directs $1 billion in cuts. The only way to do this is by cutting Medicaid, whether through caps or cuts to federal funding or in the form of burdensome requirements.
I’m going to talk about each of these in turn:
— Medicaid protects so many of your neighbors and allows them to have the health care they need, including many children. Nearly 80 million people in this country receive Medicaid.
— Medicaid is so important to the epilepsy community I serve and to many disability communities.
— Even if you don’t have Medicaid, and you don’t know anyone using Medicaid (I feel confident you do, even if you don’t know you do) this could greatly impact your services and pocketbook too.
1) So let’s start with you, your neighbors, and the country as a whole:
Nearly 80 million people rely on Medicaid to access healthcare, including medications, doctor visits, home- and community-based resources. This includes pregnant women, low-income children and families, people with disabilities, and many seniors in nursing facilities. Many of these people need long-term care and support. They deserve to have it. They are unable to pay for it out of pocket. Health care is a human right, and they desperately need and deserve to access it.
2) Medicaid is essential to the epilepsy community, the community I serve through my work at the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan.
Medicaid is how they get their anti-seizure medications, home- and community-based services, and other vital health care services. Almost 40% of people living with active epilepsy between 18-64 years old receive coverage through Medicaid. Almost one in five children and youth have special health care needs including about 4% of children with epilepsy and seizure disorders. More than one-third of children and youth with special health care needs are covered by Medicaid.
I also want to add this: When a person is unable to work due to a disability — epilepsy or otherwise — and they enroll to receive disability benefits, they are automatically enrolled in Medicaid. Let me tell you that SSDI and SSI (i.e. disability benefits) are not a windfall. Often, they keep people at or near poverty. How are they supposed to pay their health insurance?
3) These cuts may impact you and other services in your states even if you don’t receive Medicaid.
States receive federal funds to administer Medicaid. If these gigantic cuts are passed in Congress, there are still people in states who will need health care. States would then possibly have to cut other services in their own budgets to pay for these needs. This could involve cuts to other vital forms of service.
So please make that call. Please advocate for loved ones and people who you don’t even know. Our needs are connected: When you are hurt, it hurts me. When I am hurt, it hurts you. When we build each other up and make sure we all have what we need, everyone is uplifted.
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— Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 