After Donald Trump and Republicans cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations, hard-working families are now confronting the devastating consequences. Parents, caregivers, and people with disabilities say the cuts threaten the care that allows them to survive and thrive. In Colorado, Casey Barrett worries Medicaid cuts could slash the income his family depends on to care for his daughter with complex medical needs. In Nebraska, Anna Keyzer said slashing Medicaid funding are forcing her family to contemplate “unthinkable choices,” including selling their home just to keep her son alive. For families across America, Republicans’ health care cuts are a direct threat to their livelihoods, their stability, and their loved ones’ lives.
Earlier this week, Protect Our Care launched an interactive hub full of over 400 state-by-state testimonies from Americans reeling from premium hikes, hospital closures, and coverage losses. Throughout the month of June, Protect Our Care is blasting Republicans for their health care crisis ahead of the one-year anniversary of their big, ugly bill on July 4th.
Colorado
Casey Barrett and his daughter, Olivia
- “Under Colorado’s Medicaid home-care program, which has been one of the nation’s most generous, Barrett logs up to 112 hours a week as his daughter’s paid caregiver. After lawmakers approved a budget this spring that caps the number of hours a single caregiver can be paid each week at 56, his income could drop from about $162,000 a year to roughly $70,000 — a reduction that Barrett says will make it difficult to continue paying his mortgage.”
- “Given the shortage of home-care workers, sky-high turnover rates and the complexities of his daughter’s care, Barrett doesn’t think he’ll be able to find someone to pick up the remaining hours, which means it’ll be left to him.” [NBC]
Jo Remund
- “Jo Remund says it’s a full-time job to help care for two autistic children, one 14 and one 8. She said cuts could mean a loss of thousands of dollars a month, ‘which is literally the difference of being able to pay rent, being able to provide food, being able to support them in any of the outside needs that they need.’” [CPR News]
Briana Hayes
- “Hayes’ daughter receives $8,000 in services per month so that she can live at home, including 10 hours to go on community outings, 31 hours for nursing care and a few hours of homemaker services, which are for cleaning, laundry and meal preparation. Cuts to those benefits will mean that Hayes ‘would have to get a job outside the home’ and would place her daughter in daytime care, which costs $57 per hour, she said. The monthly cost for Medicaid would jump to $11,500 from the current $8,000, Hayes said.” [Colorado Sun]
Delaware
Haley Shiber
- “For Haley Shiber, private duty nurses are more than healthcare workers — they are the reason she can live independently. ‘My private duty nurses are my lifeline,’ Shiber said.”
- “‘Without skilled private duty nurses, I would not be able to live in my home, work, participate in my community, or maintain my health, safety and independence,’ she said.”
- For Haley Shiber, the issue is deeply personal. “‘You are supporting people like me,’ she said. ‘You are investing in me. My safety, my independence, my ability to live my best life in my home and my community.’” [WBOC]
Georgia
Pamela Blackstone
- “‘I should not have to make a choice between living, paying my rent or having good health,’ Blackstone said. Blackstone is a single grandmother raising an autistic grandson, while making less than $25,000 a year. She relied on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance but said now, the premiums are nearly impossible to pay. ‘Obamacare jumped from $80 to $412,’ Blackstone said.” [WDRW]
Idaho
Lacey Protopoppus
- “Lacey Protopoppus, a mother of two children who rely on Medicaid, told lawmakers at the public forum that the proposed cuts could negatively shape her children’s future. ‘He’s made incredible growth in the year and a half that he’s been on services. His growth is going to stagnate, it’s gonna slow down,’ Protopoppus said. ‘It’s not going to be at the same rapid growth that it’s been at, which will put him at a higher risk of needing services when he’s an adult.’”
- “Protopoppus said that the 4% cut has already affected her son’s care. ‘It moved his services from local, very close to us, to a little bit further away, and shifted how many hours he’s getting,’ Protopoppus said. ‘He’s getting less of his services available because we don’t have the time to go from one service to the next.’” [Idaho News 6]
Maryland
Melissa Gonce and her son, Jason
- “Six years later, Gonce no longer worries about whether Jason is being cared for — because now she does the job herself. Under a Medicaid-funded program that allows families to be paid as caregivers, she earns about $67,000 a year to look after him full time, bathing, feeding and keeping him safe.”
- “The program, Gonce said, ‘saved my family.’ Under his mother’s care, Jason’s seizures stabilized and he began making small gains in independence and daily routines. Her constant fears began to ease. Now, families like hers worry that stability could soon collapse.”
- “‘Now I’m faced with a huge decision,’ Gonce said. Will she be able to weather the cuts and keep her son at home — or be forced to send him back into a program she believes failed him?” [NBC]
Nebraska
Anna Keyzer and her son, Simon
- “Anna Keyzer, a Nebraska mother paid through Medicaid to care for her 21-year-old son, Simon — who is blind, tube-fed and prone to self-harming behaviors — said changes proposed late last year in her state would have forced her family into unthinkable choices. ‘I can’t just let Simon die, and so then I was like, ‘We’re gonna have to sell our house,’’ Keyzer said. ‘I don’t know what we would do.’”
- “But Keyzer said she fears the reprieve may be temporary, with sweeping federal Medicaid reductions rippling down to states in the coming years. ‘We feel like it’s life or death,’ she said. ‘We’re prepared to keep fighting, because we know what’s at stake.’” [NBC]
Oregon
Calli Ross and her son, Tensy
- “Tensy is one of the 155 children in Oregon, with a waitlist in the thousands, allowed to choose his dad as his paid caregiver for 20 hours a week. That is the cap, currently, in our state. (Even then, due to administrative delays, my son wasn’t able to benefit from having his dad as his paid caregiver until January.) It isn’t much, but because of this help, we are able to afford a wheelchair-accessible vehicle. My husband is able to take more time from his job to provide Tensy the care he needs to thrive. As his parents, we are the most knowledgeable and most able to care for our son. But without support, we cannot keep him home. And that’s the reality everywhere.” [Mother Jones]