Displaying 11 - 20 of 156
At 61, Delaine Dixon of Texas relies on pain management after multiple spine surgeries, but recent insurance changes and hidden facility fees have made getting care nearly impossible. Living on Social Security, she now faces the impossible choice between paying hundreds in unexpected charges or going without the treatment she needs to manage her pain.
Maureen Malesco of Middletown, New Jersey, utilizes Medicaid to support her daughter, Mairead, who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at 19 months. “At the time, which was 1999, she was the youngest person in New Jersey to have been diagnosed with autism,” Maureen recalled. Mairead has grown into a capable adult who works at a day program for autistic adults, earning a modest income while living with her mother.
May, a young woman from the Midwest, was diagnosed with a life-threatening pulmonary embolism and prescribed costly blood thinners to prevent another clot. Even with good employer-sponsored insurance, she faced staggering out-of-pocket costs—hundreds of dollars a month—for medication she needed to survive.
Madison works with a mobile dentistry company that primarily serves people who have Medicaid. She explains that the company began serving senior centers where many residents had Medicaid and needed dentures but were unable to leave the facilities. The work expanded and now also provides services to the YMCA, YWCA, substance abuse recovery centers, and homeless shelters.
Cassenda Nelson lives in Camilla, a rural community in southwest Georgia, where health care is limited and resources are hard to come by. She’s a mother of four, a community health worker, and the full-time caregiver to her daughter Amunet, who lives with type 2 diabetes and experiences seizures.
Katherine Twomey, a licensed clinical social worker and lifelong Long Islander, has dedicated her entire career to community mental health. Living in New York’s 1st Congressional District, she works as a psychotherapist at a community mental health clinic where she and her colleagues serve patients with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Nearly all of their patients rely on Medicaid.
Charlie Kulander credits the ACA with stabilizing his life during his family’s most challenging years. “It allowed me to get my life back. We were in the midst of putting kids through college, all the expenses of a family. If I didn't have the Affordable Care Act, more than likely, my kids wouldn't have gone to college, and we would have been forced to declare bankruptcy. I owe my present life in a lot of ways to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.”
Troy Sharp of Omaha, Nebraska spent the last six years caring for his wife through severe health conditions until she passed away from heart failure in 2023, two years after a heart transplant. Together they raised two children, now 14 and 11. Throughout those difficult years Medicaid provided a safety net, shielding the vulnerable family from loads of medical debt. “Medicaid has been an invaluable service to me and my family,” Troy explained.
Jill is a single mother raising two teenagers, supporting them on her own without assistance from their father. Her son James is a senior in high school and will soon turn 18. His medical challenges make this milestone especially difficult. Medicaid, she said, makes it possible for her not to always choose between their health and their childhood.
For years, 55-year-old Jennifer Blumenthal of New Jersey, has lived with Type 1.5 diabetes. Managing her condition depends on two prescriptions, Novolog and Jardiance. Without them, her health and life are at risk.