Dariya Walker: A Young Voice for Health Care Justice

Dariya Walker is a high school student in Florissant, Missouri. Dariya and her family use Medicaid to access health care services, and she appreciates the peace of mind that having coverage gives her and her family. “It’s good to know that I don’t have to be worried about my health.”

Even if an illness or injury can be treated at home, it helps ease Dariya’s anxiety to know that going to a doctor’s office or hospital is always an option. “If I did have to have surgery, Medicaid is going to help cover what needs to be covered because that’s what it’s there for,” she shared.

Medicaid also covers Dariya’s preventative care and dental services, something that she believes should be available to everyone. “Anything that can keep someone safe and healthy, then I feel like they should keep that around.”

Now that Dariya is 18, she is taking on more responsibility for her own health care, but unstable health policy adds extra stress to an already turbulent time in her life. She can’t be fully confident that her Medicaid coverage will continue, or if it will continue covering any health care services that she might need. She explained, “With what’s going on today, like dealing with Trump and all these bills passing, I feel like everything that’s coming towards your way as you get older is going to be intimidating… You never know how bad it’s going to be.”

If Dariya were to lose her Medicaid coverage, it would affect more than just her physical health. “If I lost [Medicaid coverage], I feel like it would put a pause on where I want to be or get to in life because I’m going to have to focus on keeping myself healthy.” Her dreams of becoming a professional dancer could be shattered if she couldn’t access proper treatment for an injury or long-term illness. “If that were to happen to me, I feel like I would lose a piece of me, because I love to dance… if I get sick, I feel like that will hold me back.”

Dariya understands that her generation will be living with the long-term impact of today’s health care decisions. Speaking up about what coverage means to her is one way she hopes to influence what comes next. She knows that some of the Trump administration’s policies have begun to impact her community. “Some of the decisions he’s making haven’t been the best, and it’s already affected many other people, and it just hasn’t hit everybody yet.” She can see how the ripple effects of losing coverage wouldn’t just affect her. “If [legislators] take something away like this, it can affect the whole community.”