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Protect Medicaid

Dear Editor,

Everywhere you look or listen, the AHCA and its recent passage in the House is a major topic. Within that, there are a number of topics that make headlines: pre-existing conditions, lifetime maximums, and premium costs to name a few.

While those and other are major concerns, depending on one’s particular issue, we should also be looking at the changes/cuts to Medicaid. Pre-ACA, Medicaid was a program that only a small portion of poorer Americans was eligible to utilize. Enrollment numbers increased dramatically with the expansion under the ACA. The current health care bill not only pulls back on the expansion but also brings back funding levels to pre-ACA, again making it available to only a small portion of the poorest Americans.

Who are those Americans? Veterans are on that list. In the 19 states that did not expand Medicaid, veterans often are uninsured. In Ohio, when this funding for the expansion is cut, many vets in Ohio will suddenly find themselves uninsured.

The next group is children. Our local schools can access Medicaid for eligible special education students. Medicaid covers services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and others. Call your local school treasurer and ask how losing Medicaid funds will harm the students and the district.

At a school board meeting I recently attended, the new five-year forecast was discussed and the treasurer was estimating a $98,000 loss in Medicaid funds. How many speech therapists could that pay for? Cutting those funds could cut those services to the children who need it the most. One might argue that an IEP would prevent the cutting of services to those children. However, what Medicaid paid for must now come from another source, so some child somewhere in the district has to lose something. There will be fewer teachers, textbooks, special programs, etc.

Our elderly is another group that stands to lose greatly with Medicaid cuts. The AARP reports that 65 percent of nursing home residents are primarily supported through Medicaid. They also report that 45 percent of the nationás total nursing home costs are paid via Medicaid. What will happen to our grandparents if the current administration makes good on its promise to rescind the expansion and cut the budget for Medicaid?

Please call your senator and ask them to vote against the AHCA. This bill will negatively affect every single one of us, how much is simply dependent on your personal situation. But one thing is definite; it will harm the most needy among us the most. Is that truly what any of us want? Do your own research and then call your legislators.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Yevincy

St. Clairsville

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