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But Medicaid funding provided through the school district pays for additional services: Miles\u2019 speech therapy, plus physical and occupational therapy. It also covers the teacher\u2019s aide he needs at his preschool.<\/p>\n
Lori credits Miles’ therapists for the gains he has made. Miles can now walk independently, speak in simple sentences, and\u2014with a teacher’s aide\u2014attend school, Lori says. Just as critical, Miles’ ability to go to school means Justin and Lori can work full-time.<\/p>\n
If Medicaid is cut, Lori worries Miles will no longer be eligible for the extensive therapy and the teacher\u2019s aide. \u201cWhen he was 1, Miles couldn\u2019t even sit up,” Lori says. “The therapy has been critical. He\u2019s active and engaged and able to participate with more normal kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Lifeline After Money Runs Out<\/h2>\n
Two years ago, 96-year-old Grace Miller’s arthritis made it impossible for her to walk or care for herself. Her family moved her into a nursing home in Chapin, S.C. But the care costs $6,000 per month, and Miller, the widow of a World War II veteran, quickly ran through her personal savings, according to her son William.<\/p>\n
Once her bank account dropped to $2,000, William, who lives nearby, was able to get his mom on Medicaid. “Having Medicaid gives her a sense of security,” says William, who is retired.<\/p>\n Indeed, Medicaid provides critical funding for seniors because long-term care, from home-health aides to nursing homes, is not covered by Medicare, the health insurance program for people 65 and older. Some 64 percent of nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid<\/a>, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n For seniors to qualify for Medicaid, they must spend down virtually all their assets. Without Medicaid, William says he\u2019d have to move his mom to his home, which he says is ill-suited for her health needs.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Medicaid wasn\u2019t there, she\u2019d be in a bind. But not just her, our whole family,\u201d says William. \u201cWe\u2019d pay to keep her in the nursing home as long as possible, but we wouldn\u2019t be able to do it for long.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t hold up a tray anymore,\u201d says Elizabeth Nicolosi about why she quit her waitressing job this May. It\u2019s not the first time Nicolosi has had to drop out of the workforce. The 42-year-old was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2008, about the same time she finished her degree in computer information technology.<\/p>\n Nicolosi, a divorced mom of two children who lives in New Orleans, has relapsing MS that requires her to take 10 medications per day. She can go months without symptoms, but when an attack strikes, she is weak and tired, her hands shake, her muscles ache, and she gets dizzy. That leaves her unable to work for months at a time.<\/p>\n She\u2019d like to get a less physically taxing job that provides health insurance. But she says she has been unable to find an employer willing to hire her full-time where she can use her degree because she’s been cycling in and out of the workforce.<\/p>\n Nicolosi qualified for Medicaid in 2013, when she had to cut back on work as her MS worsened. Before that, she relied on the National Organization for Rare Disorders foundation for financial assistance.<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t cover all of her expenses. She would sometimes go months without taking her medications or seeing a doctor. If it weren\u2019t for Medicaid and the medications that keep the symptoms at bay, Nicolosi says she wouldn\u2019t be able to work at all. \u201cI would have been in a wheelchair by now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Chynna Lloyd just finished her freshman year at California State University, Northridge. The 18-year-old from Lomita, Calif., the first in her family to go to college, is studying public health policy and would eventually like to be a lawyer. Lloyd knows public health programs well. She, her mom, and her 15-year-old sister have been in the Medicaid program as long as she can remember.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family has just always fallen into that gap where we didn\u2019t make enough to pay for our own health insurance,\u201d Lloyd says. Her mother emigrated from Belize in 1996 and worked mainly as a security guard earning minimum wage. Lloyd\u2019s father passed away when she was 15, and for a period of time she, her mom, and her sister were homeless.<\/p>\n Lloyd says Medicaid has been critical for her family. Her sister has severe asthma. \u201cIn the winter, when it\u2019s really cold, she has trouble breathing,\u201d Lloyd says. Medicaid covers her inhalers and asthma treatments.<\/p>\n Her mom, who is going to community college in the fall to get a culinary arts certificate to prepare for a job in food service, recently had surgery for gastritis. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t have been able to afford that surgery without health insurance,\u201d Lloyd says.<\/p>\n Lloyd was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome last winter during finals. \u201cI was really stressed out,\u201d she says. Her doctor provided some muscle relaxers for the back spasms, allowing her to go to class, and advised her on a diet to avoid flare-ups. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have health insurance, I wouldn\u2019t have gone to the doctor,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n If Medicaid is cut, Lloyd says she\u2019s worried for her family and others like hers who live near the poverty line. \u201cIt\u2019s not that people are lazy. I know people who work long hours and can\u2019t afford health insurance,\u201d Lloyd says.<\/p>\n Kelsey Swanson, 27, has been in love with theater ever since her parents took her to see a production of “Beauty and the Beast” when she was in fifth grade. Swanson, who lives in Silver Spring, Md., studied theater at Simpson College in Boston. \u00a0<\/p>\n She graduated in 2011 and has been working as a theatrical electrician since, freelancing for theaters in and around Washington, D.C. She doesn’t get employer health insurance and her income fluctuates\u2014but she loves her profession. “It’s a lot of fun,” Swanson says.<\/p>\n Even though she is young and healthy, having insurance is important to her. \u201cWith my job, it\u2019s very likely I could injure myself. I\u2019m moving heavy things around. I\u2019m hanging 30 feet in the air focusing lights,” Swanson says. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have health insurance and got injured, I could miss months of work and not have any income or any way to pay medical bills.\u201d<\/p>\n When Kelsey turned 26, she was no longer able to be on her parents\u2019 health insurance. Her low income qualified her to apply for Medicaid. \u201cIt was a very pleasant surprise,\u201d Swanson says. \u201cLiving in this area, it\u2019s really expensive. I pay almost $1,000 between rent and utilities, plus student loans. It\u2019s hard to add another $300 a month payment for insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n Swanson says she doesn\u2019t use her insurance frequently because she\u2019s healthy. But after battling a bout of depression in college, she is comforted to know that mental health treatments, should she need them, would be covered.<\/p>\n \u201cI have peace of mind knowing I have it. Should anything happen, I won\u2019t be destitute.\u201c<\/p>\n More from Consumer Reports: Copyright \u00a9 2006-2017 Consumer Reports, Inc.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A friend suggested she apply for Medicaid to cover the gap. When private insurance isn’t enough, Medicaid helps pay for long-term medical treatments for children who have special healthcare needs and without regard to family income. For Amber, Medicaid has covered visits to medical specialists, a home health aide to administer infusions, and special vitamins Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/figure>\n
Working When You Have a Disease<\/h2>\n
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Staying Healthy to Achieve a Better Future<\/h2>\n
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Peace of Mind to Pursue a Passion<\/h2>\n
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Top pick tires for 2016<\/a>
Best used cars for $25,000 and less<\/a>
7 best mattresses for couples<\/a><\/p>\n