By skyforbes 
For a long time, I figured I had depression of some kind but never got a diagnosis for it, just went to therapists and paid out-of-pocket. But a couple years ago I lost my job and it hit me in a new way: I had zero motivation to go get a job, even though I certainly needed one. I just spent all day sitting at home telling myself to find something, but taking no action on it at all. I wasn’t sure what to do about it and eventually decided to try a prescription drug, which I’d resisted for years while I went to therapy.
I won’t make a dramatic statement like Medicaid saved my life; I’ll leave that for the many, many people for whom it’s literally true. But Medicaid certainly saved me from that low point. I found a doctor, got a prescription for an anti-depressant, and finally got myself moving, at least enough to complete job applications start to finish and follow up on emails from potential employers.
I’d like to add the disclaimer here that my experience was very fortunate, and drugs definitely are not magic. I was lucky they helped to this degree. It doesn’t mean other people can take drugs and feel better just like that.
I’d also like to say there are much better reasons to defend and expand Medicaid. Human health is worth it, the better treatment of poor people in our country is worth it. But for some people who fully agree with the conservative story about our society and our government, only budgetary arguments matter. I’m here to say Medicaid expansion makes sense for budgetary reasons.
I needed, what, a few hundred bucks in support from Medicaid for a co-pay for the doctor and the prescription? I don’t know, a few hundred each, a thousand total? That’s really high but let’s go with it. In the two years since, I’ve more than paid it back in taxes, since I went and got a part-time job a few months after seeing the doctor, then a temp job on top of that, then moved from temp to full-time. I’ll be paying back that Medicaid support every year for years to come.
Without help from Medicaid, does anyone benefit from me taking a lot longer to go get a job? Certainly not if I apply for food stamps instead of working, or if I quit paying my bills. Nobody benefits from that. Huffington Post found that 1/3 of people only use Medicaid for a year, and more than half are off of it before 3 years have passed. So like me, their draw is small, and the benefits far outweigh the cost, even just in monetary terms.
Again, a service like Medicaid has a lot more benefits than just monetary ones. We can’t lose sight of them — human dignity, human health, basic rights. But if all you see are dollar signs, there are still good reasons to support Medicaid.
President Trump’s budget would cut spending on Medicaid by $800 billion over 10 years. Identify your U.S. Rep here and contact them to tell them you oppose Medicaid cuts.