When I was a single mom 50 years ago, my daughter had a rare medical problem that took several years to diagnose. She vomited uncontrollably becoming dangerously dehydrated. Between two and six she would have these attacks between every six weeks and three months, requiring hospitalization of up to a week.
There were not many kindergartners who could tell a doctor the name of the medical shot they needed to stop the heaving. She could have given lessons in how to insert an IV to any nursing student or medical intern and would tell her nurses how to do it when they approached her with the needle and saline solution bags often adding, "Please don't hurt me."
Only after a horrendous attack when she was taken by screaming ambulance to Mass General Hospital, did myriad tests and a young pediatrician find the cause, the first case of this illness in his career. It was a form of epilepsy.
The solution was the drug Dilantin. After being on it a few weeks when my daughter vomited from a normal stomach bug and STOPPED we celebrated with a Carvel cake as soon as she recovered.
Believe it or not we were lucky. My divorce decree meant that my ex provided Blue Cross Blue Shield. My boss believed during these attacks my place was with my daughter not in the office. It made my pitifully low salary worth staying at the job. Almost every cent I earned went for necessities. I had an allowance of 25 cents a day for personal extras.
In today's world, I'm not sure my child would have survived. Medicaid is in danger. The program was introduced in 1965 and expanded in 2010.
Here's some facts:
- Medicaid provides health care in most states for people who only live up to 138% over the national poverty line.
- Some states have not accepted the government aid increases.
- As of 2022 some 85 million people are enrolled out of 340,311,000 million people We might ask why so many people are low-income in a country that claims to be one of the richest.
- 37% of the enrollees are children accounting for 15% of the spending
- Annual cost in 2023 was $870 billion
- Besides children low income seniors and disabled are eligible and are covered.
- Only U.S. citizens and or qualified non-citizens are eligible.
- Long-term care and community-based health services are included,
- There is a variation how Medicaid is administered state by state.
Now the program is under threat by the Big Beautiful Bill. It seems some of the oligarchs, Trump and the cowardly Republicans can't bear to see children, elderly and disabled people get the medical care they need.
Here's how many people could suffer if this bill is signed into law.
Although America already spends more per person than most countries its results are abysmal according to https://www.internationalinsurance.com/health/systems/
My daughter, now in her 50s, just spent three wonderful weeks with me. I think how lucky I am to have her, not just because of the ups and downs of normal mother-daughter relationships but because there was medical care there when she needed it. A few years later, I might have been on Medicaid.
What will happen with reduced Medicaid?
How many pregnant women will lose their babies or not survive their pregnancy?
How many mothers will lose children who could have been saved if only our greedy, immoral alleged leaders thought money was more important than lives?
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