Since she was 17, Sam Gwesinie has relied on Medicaid to survive. Now 27, she’s a mother of two in Minnesota, managing multiple chronic health conditions while raising a young son with autism. Medicaid, she says, is what keeps her family afloat. “Medicaid is the heartbeat of my family,” Sam said. “Without it, we wouldn’t […]
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Jennifer Coulibaly, Pennsylvania
Jennifer Coulibaly, her husband Emmanuel and their baby daughter Joy Gabriela live in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. After spending years overseas doing missionary work in West Africa, they recently returned home to continue their work and raise their young family. Their lives and health care are supported by programs that have become essential to their survival. […]
Sara Emerle, Pennsylvania
Sara Emerle knows firsthand what Medicaid means for families in crisis. In March 2022, her mother was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It’s a progressive condition that gradually takes away a person’s ability to move, speak, eat and eventually, breathe. Her mother lived just one year and eight months after the […]
Armond Dai, California
Armond Dai was building a promising career in architecture in Washington, DC when everything changed. After contracting COVID-19 twice, he developed a series of chronic illnesses that left him unable to work and desperate for answers. To this day Long COVID is not widely understood, and without clear lab results, qualifying for disability benefits became […]
Filipe Menezes, Maine
Filipe Menezes is an immigrant from Angola, Africa, who moved to the United States in 2014. He graduated from high school in 2013 and settled in Lewiston, Maine where he has lived for nearly a decade. In late 2019 Filipe received a diagnosis of schizophrenia. At that time, he qualified for MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid […]
Lydia Cruz, Colorado
Lydia Cruz lives in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District where Medicaid covers nearly one in three people. Living with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder that affects her joints, digestive tract, and vascular systems, Lydia faces complex and chronic health issues every single day. She currently receives coverage through both Medicare and Medicaid as […]
Joel Clark, Ohio
Joel Clark grew up in Springfield, Ohio, and now studies at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore, working toward his Master of Science in Nursing. His journey into health care advocacy began with a phone call that changed everything. During his sophomore year at Ohio State, Joel learned that his father had been hospitalized. […]
Mina Schultz, New Mexico
Mina, a cancer survivor living in New Mexico, knows firsthand what it means to depend on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Diagnosed with cancer at just 25 years old, she endured a year of intensive inpatient treatment, including surgery to remove a tumor in her knee that left her with a titanium knee […]
Maggie Chism, Kentucky
In Kentucky in 2016, Maggie Chism welcomed her daughter Evelyn into the world. From the very beginning, Evelyn faced enormous medical challenges. Diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, she underwent three open heart surgeries before her fourth birthday. During her second surgery, Maggie found herself fighting a battle on two fronts, for her […]
Brian Lacomchek, Pennsylvania
Brian, a Philadelphia resident, has relied heavily on Medicaid for nearly two decades. Paralyzed at the age of 27 from gunshot wounds, he has spent nearly 20 years managing a series of serious health complications, including recurring bed sores and bone infections. Now, in his late 40s, the incoming Medicaid cuts aren’t just unsettling, they […]