By skyforbes 
This post is published with permission as part of RISE Stronger’s Affordable Care Act ‘In Their Words’ series.
Let’s talk about Medicaid. I believe in it. I believe low income families should have health care. That babies and children must receive care, even when their parents can’t pay. That adults who cannot afford the often overpriced medications and treatments they need must also get care. But Medicaid is not just for those who are poor.
My mother was a comfortable upper middle class homemaker, who later went to work. She had some investments and could have been comfortable in her senior years with her income, savings and investments. But about eight years ago, maybe more, she developed what was called “mild cognitive impairment.” A nicer way of saying Alzheimer’s. The money was spent to keep her in nice residences with aides as long as she was appropriate for them. And finally, for many reasons, she was not.
Did you know nursing homes are hard to get into, especially if you are on certain meds, may be aggressive, and you don’t want a s-ithole where your mattress might be on a low cot and there is no lounge and insufficient staff? But if you are private pay, and perhaps have a friend who pulled a string (she’s never admitted it) you may get in. For $15,000 a month. Yup — you read that right. 15k. And so there comes a time the money runs out. That’s when you do a Medicaid application.
The Medicaid application was apparently created by elder-law attorneys for the purpose of stripping the rest of the money a person has. It is a complicated process with numerous back and forth demands from DSS, and many other problems. It has to be filed in the county the applicant last lived in independently. So though we moved my mother to Rochester, the application had to be made on Long Island.
We finally were approved, many months after my mother’s money to pay for the nursing home ran out and many thousands of dollars later. They paid the arrears and she was able to stay in the dementia care unit where she had become comfortable and calm.
If you think Medicaid is just for others about whom you do not care, don’t fool yourself. Medicaid is for your parents, or perhaps when you are older, you. Or maybe the spouse whose health declined before yours. We all need Medicaid to stay strong. And if this new bill reduces Medicaid, as many are worried it will, it will hurt countless people who desperately need it.
-Jill Paperno
Rochester, New York