Medicaid cuts could be devastating for those who depend on in-home services
Her home. Her mobility. The freedom to enjoy her golden years. All gone.
Three years after her fall, and following stays in multiple nursing homes, Medicaid-funded programs allow her to live in her own apartment in
Payne, now 63 and a high-functioning quadriplegic with minimal use of her extremities due to an incomplete spinal cord injury, worries constantly about what would happen to her -- and to millions of others with severe disabilities -- if the
Senate Majority Leader
But many experts in the field, including the nation's largest physicians group, say the newest draft still falls short on coverage and access, particularly for low-income people on Medicaid -- people like Payne, whose only income is
"I spend hours every day signing petitions, making phone calls, sending emails to our senators (to tell them) that Trumpcare would be devastating to so many people," Payne said, referring to the
"I can't imagine how I would make it."
Before moving into her apartment, Payne was shuffled around nursing homes in southern
"It was horrible. It was a living nightmare," she said.
Payne is not alone.
Getting people back into their own homes is not only the right thing to do, Conway said, but makes the most fiscal sense. On average, the cost for a senior to live in a long-term care facility in the area is
"But that is where we, as a state, have been so behind," Conway said.
But without Medicaid, those concerns will be secondary, Conway said.
"If you do not have Medicaid coverage for older adults who need assistance, what's going to happen to them? Will they just go to bed and die?" Conway asked. "How you decide who gets services, who lives and dies, I don't know. But 92-year-olds shouldn't be on waiting lists."
Payne, a former social worker who worked with battered women and children, says there would be no one around to help. She has a daughter who lives in
"I would truly be in dire straits. I think if Trumpcare were to pass, or anything along those lines, people would have to make impossible, impossible decisions," Payne said. "A life can change in a split second, and life as you know it is gone."
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