Michele Steepleton: When the System Failed My Sister, Medicaid Stepped In

Michele Steepleton never imagined she’d see her older sister Susan on the brink of losing everything including her life. But when Susan, now 60, lost her job during the pandemic, it triggered a health crisis that spiraled quickly and dangerously out of control. 

“She had been managing rheumatoid arthritis since her twenties and then later developed diabetes,” Michele explains. “But after she lost her job, she lost her insurance. And without her medications, her health just started failing fast.” 

Susan fell multiple times in the span of just a few weeks. She could no longer climb stairs to retrieve her mail-order medications. Her home became unsafe and unsanitary. “She couldn’t even take her garbage out… It was heartbreaking.” Susan was unable to manage cooking and survived on fast food delivery, which contributed to her poor health and uncontrolled diabetes. 

Eventually, their brother helped Susan move into an apartment in Cedar Rapids. “When she got off the plane, I hardly recognized her,” Michele remembers, “I couldn’t believe her medical state”  

Michele took her sister to a free clinic, where she was urged to apply for Medicaid. That moment became the turning point in Susan’s life. 

With Medicaid coverage, Susan was able to see a physician assistant at PCI Clinic, who connected her with a rheumatologist and a cardiologist. They got her on the correct, often expensive medications fully covered by Medicaid. 

And the transformation was nothing short of remarkable. 

“Today, she’s walking without a cane. She’s living independently. She’s managing her diabetes. She has her dignity back.” 

Michele reflects often on what might have happened without Medicaid. “We say it all the time: if we hadn’t gotten her to Cedar Rapids and on Medicaid, she wouldn’t be alive.” 

Now she’s sharing her story to say: Medicaid saves lives. And for families like hers, it makes the difference between despair and hope, illness and healing, surviving and thriving.