We have been over this before: fraud = terrible. Don’t do it! So imagine what a surprise it was Thursday when I realized I had gotten a chat from my mother saying Vice President JD Vance and Director of Center for Medicaid Services Oz were cutting off $259 MILLION in Medicaid funding to Minnesota.
This is on top of the two BILLION dollars of funding freeze they came up with about a month ago.
Here’s the thing, there are very real people who need Medicaid, what we call Medical Assistance in Minnesota. The federal government along with the state government fund MY Medicaid health insurance and Home and Community Based Services that help me live independently (with support) in my community.
So, what does that care mean to me? It means that I have support staff that help me in my community – you know, like go to the grocery store, to bookstores, get haircuts, and to community events. They feed me, transfer me from my wheelchair to bed to my specialized toilet/shower chair. They give me drinks of water and my favorite vanilla latte to get me going in the morning. They give me meds which are paid for by my Medicaid health insurance. Medicaid pays for my medical appointments and durable medical equipment such as my power wheelchair, manual wheelchair, communication device, and that specialized toilet/shower chair I mentioned earlier.
Without Medicaid, I can’t even imagine what my life would look like.
I. Can’t. Even. Go. There.
What I do know, is that people with disabilities and others who depend on Medicaid, are being used as political pawns in a game that we didn’t ask to be a part of. Remember how I wrote in an earlier post, that yes, it’s important to have measures in place to protect government funds from those committing fraud – but at the same time, let’s make sure that people who depend on this care, are not, being harmed in the process?
I could argue, that I’m being harmed just with the threat of Medicaid funding being pulled out from under me. I’m tired. I’m so tired of this bullshit that’s making me fear that the care I need could disappear. I wish I could say I’m exaggerating to make a point, but I don’t think I am.
I’m thinking of it kind of like the time the elevators in my apartment building were broken. What would have happened if instead of figuring out what was wrong with the elevators and fixing them, my apartment company would have just said, “the elevators are broken, let’s bulldoze the building?” This is what this is all feeling like right now – that the Medicaid services I depend on, are being bulldozed when really, politicians just need to focus on fixing the actual problem.
Here’s more about this from others:
Justin Smith Writes 