Abe IS Medicaid.

I often see commentary in the news and online that medicaid is for the "poor". Often times, people seem to forget that Medicaid is also for the sick and the disabled, too.

Abram qualifies for Medicaid under many different umbrellas including having an intellectual disability and an acquired (congenital) brain injury called cortical dysplasia.

We have private insurance on top of having Medicaid because without it, we would literally be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to medical bills and therapies if we didn't.

Medicaid covers what our insurance does not - and in today's world and market - insurance providers are denying him standard care including his ability to have access to the therapies that teach him basic life skills like walking, using stairs independently, how to communicate with sign language, iPads, PECS, etc.
The fact that people want to take my son's health care away from him hurts my heart in a deep dark place. Families like ours already have to fight tooth and nail to give our children a sense of normalcy and to be able to do all the little things that most folks take for granted.

What is being proposed for Medicaid at the Federal Level is looking grim for kids like Abe. They want to change the way Iowa is paid for the Medicaid program, so instead of the Federal Government paying a portion of EACH state's medicaid costs - they want to cap the amounts allotted for each state and pick and choose who gets the help. Why? Because they "believe that states will reign in fraud and abuse if they know the amount they will receive is finite and not based on enrollment."

With no laws preventing corporate insurance companies from discriminating against my son for his pre-existing conditions we count on Medicaid to have our backs. Without it, families like ours will be bankrupt. Children will suffer for it and will in the end be an even bigger burden on the state.

Iowa has already "privatized" Medicaid and I can tell you first-hand what a nightmare it has been. Children are being refused services and access to life-changing therapies. Sweet little kids who need help are being denied wheelchairs and kids like Abram are being told that they aren't making improvements fast enough for their liking so they don't want to pay for therapies at all anymore or that people who have severe and chronic pain cannot go to the ER for help.

Step up, speak out and do something to help. Write to your Senators and tell them how you feel about it.
https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

---