This
summer, Congress and President Trump cut over $1
trillion from Medicaid to help offset the cost
of tax cuts for billionaires. Those Medicaid
cuts are scheduled to start kicking in after
next year’s midterms, so it’s time for everyone
to start understanding the life and death
consequences now.
This
year, my adult daughter in rural Michigan was
hospitalized multiple times with a raging
infection of her pancreas, spleen, and
gallbladder. Surgery saved my daughter’s life.
And that surgery was possible because of
Medicaid.
As
a parent and grandparent, I do everything
possible to protect the health and safety of my
loved ones — just like you do. That doesn’t just
mean taking care of things around the house or
getting them to the doctor — it can also mean
fighting against the policies that make people
sick or deny them care.
When
my kids were young, poor air quality and
environmental hazards caused our family
physical, mental, and financial anguish. Now my
three adult children have serious medical
issues, including seizures and pulmonary
embolisms.
Millions
of other Americans have health issues like these
— and their lives will be at risk if they lose
Medicaid coverage.
That’s
what drove me to found the Black Appalachian
Coalition to close race and gender health
disparities. Our work focuses on communities
throughout Appalachia, including in Kentucky,
Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New
York, and West Virginia.
Through
my work in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, I
met Linda Brown — a staunch advocate for
affordable health care, driven by personal
experience.
Brown
once had a medical emergency
and
spent nine days in the hospital. “I
didn’t
know if I would live, yet I never
had
to wonder how I would pay. Medicaid
and
the Affordable Care Act saved my
life,”
she said. Affordable health care “let
me
focus on healing, on breathing, on
being
a mother, instead of drowning in
fear
of medical bills.”
As
Brown recovered, she felt hopeful. She could
take care of herself and her son, and help
others in the community. Now she’s a Black
Appalachian Coalition trainer and supports
people to share their story and point us towards
solutions.
Now’s
the time to start sharing stories like hers. Ten
million Americans will lose health care coverage
because of the federal cuts to Medicaid. Coupled
with cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies — the
still unresolved sticking point of the recent
government shutdown — up
to 17 million Americans could lose care
overall.
Without
medical coverage and funding for health care
institutions, people will lose access to
maternal health care, mental health and drug
treatment, and preventative and primary care.
Rural
areas already experience slow care — but with
the cuts, we will have no care.
That’s because health care providers will cut
services or shut down — especially in rural
areas and low-income communities where
hospitals are more dependent on patients with
Medicaid coverage.
That
will impact care even for people with
traditional private insurance. We’ll see an
increase in emergency room visits, and the
burden of the costs will be shifted to already
stretched communities.
The
attacks on Medicaid aren’t just policy choices —
they’re signing people’s death certificates
before they ever see a physician. They’re
denying people like my daughter — or someone you
love — access to the treatments, prescriptions,
and care that could save their lives.
With
this experience in mind, I worked with 40
organizations to produce the Rural
Policy Action Report,
which provides a federal policy agenda —
including on health care — to improve rural
people’s lives.
I know
I speak for my rural neighbors
when
I say we’re demanding that
Congress
reverse its cuts to Medicaid and
the
Affordable Care Act, expand health
care
coverage, lower prescription drug
prices,
and ensure access to care that all
of
us deserve.
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