We’re not political activists. We’re not wealthy. We’re just parents from Salem, Missouri, who did what anyone would do when their child needed help. Without Medicaid, we would have lost far more than our family farm.
When our son was born, we knew something wasn’t right. He was lagging by every measure, but there was no diagnosis. We went to several doctors and hospitals for help.
By nine months, the medical bills were piling up — even with the private insurance we had. But even with this so-called good insurance, the few therapies that were covered by insurance came with a copay, as did the doctor visits, MRIs, CT scans and genetic tests. To keep up with the ever-mounting medical bills and to be closer to medical care, we had to sell our farm.
At the time, Missouri had a Medicaid program that made a huge difference. If we kept our private insurance, Medicaid picked up the cost of therapy. Once we learned of this program, we were able to have therapists come to our home for speech, feeding, physical, and occupational therapy.
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It provided a personal aid for our son, Alex, three hours a day. This was a tremendous blessing. Without this program — which allowed professionals to come into our home and work with our child — he would never have walked, learned to express himself (he is non-verbal), or been able to feed himself.
Today, our son is nearly 26. He lives in a local group home. They struggle to pay staff. There’s no extra money for dental care. If Medicaid funding is cut, there’s nothing to fall back on.
Families like ours can’t go back to how it was before.
We’ve always paid into the system. This isn’t a handout, it’s a lifeline. It’s not left or right. It’s about humanity.
Right now, politicians in Washington, D.C., are considering a proposal to cut $800 billion from Medicaid over the next decade. That could devastate programs that our son has relied on, taking a sledgehammer to the services that already operate on tight budgets.
Right here in Missouri, our state could lose $12 billion in resources for health care — taking money out of our hospitals, rural clinics, group homes, and more.
Throughout the country, we must not forget who will bear the brunt of cuts to Medicaid: children, seniors, veterans, and working families. Across the country, Medicaid covers:
- One in three children with cancer
- Half of all children with serious medical conditions
- 875,000 U.S. veterans
- 7.2 million seniors
Cutting this program would devastate our region. It would force health centers to scale back services or shut their doors entirely.
The burden would fall hardest on rural and desert communities, where options are already limited. It would increase reliance on emergency rooms, overwhelm hospitals, and raise costs for everyone — including those with private insurance.
This shouldn’t be a political issue. Everybody gets sick, and what happened to our family could happen to anybody else. No matter who you voted for or how much money you make, we should all be able to agree on the fact that folks have access to these sorts of basic health care services.
We want lawmakers to understand: Medicaid isn’t waste. It’s survival. And in Missouri, it’s the difference between hope and despair for thousands of families just like ours.
