Montana lives at stake with proposed Medicaid cut

When the House Republicans rammed through the plan to eliminate $880 billion from Medicaid, they did so without admitting the drastic impact those cuts would have on seniors, people with disabilities, and children. The congressional plan to eliminate Medicaid is a death sentence for my home health clients and thousands of vulnerable Montanans who rely on this critical healthcare program. This is not hyperbole or overstating the facts.

Davidis one of my clients. He relies on Medicaid to help fund care so he can live at home with his debilitating cerebral palsy. Him living at home ultimately costs us, the taxpayers, less money than living at a hospital or a special care center.

With the bill now in the Senate, Montana’s Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester should lead the charge to save Medicaid funding and stand up for people like David, who live with a disability, and for children in low-income families like many in Montana, and for seniors living on low, fixed incomes.

If this health care repeal is passed into law, David’s survival, my job, and my family’s future are all at risk. Living with cerebral palsy, David needs assistance with everything every day. If his hours of care are cut, he’ll be forced to leave his home and search for much more expensive care that will ultimately provide him with a lower quality of life — if he can afford the care.

Can you imagine David’s and his family’s predicament? David is poised to lose everything — his home, his routine, his long-term caregiver — all because the elected leaders in the wealthiest nation in the world choose to prioritize the profits of corporations and their owners and shareholders ahead of the life and well-being of him and so many citizens like him. This greed and complete disrespect for the people who need the most care are not the American values I was raised to uphold.

I was raised to care for others, especially the people who need the most help to get by. This led me to a career as a professional caregiver. I‘ve worked in this industry for nine years, providing critical services for people with disabilities, people recovering from surgery, and people as they age and their ability to care for themselves deteriorates.

Let’s be very clear: It is not just people who rely on Medicaid who would be harmed by this law. Analysis from the Center for American Progress based on projections in the initial report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the cost of healthcare for an average Montana family skyrocketing up $11,226/year by 2020 and $16,459/year by 2026.

Ultimately, the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to destroy the lives of millions of hardworking Americans by gutting Medicaid, ripping away health care from 142,000 Montana residents, and eliminating millions of care-giving, long-term care, and health care jobs.

What’s more, they did this to specifically increase the profits of corporations and the wealthy.

Americans living with disabilities, children of low-income families, and our seniors all deserve access to affordable health care and the opportunity to live out their lives with dignity and respect. If you worry, like I do, about a future where affordable health care is out of reach for the majority of Montanans and the impacts of poor health on our communities, I urge you to join me and call on our elected leaders to stand up for Montana’s families and to save Medicaid.

Health care and care for our disabled, elderly, and children is under attack in D.C., and Montana needs our elected leaders, Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, to fight to save Medicaid.