Medicaid gives people access to essential health care and supports when they need it most, but enormous Republican-proposed cuts would jeopardize the health of over 70 million people, including children, pregnant people, older adults, people with disabilities and people with low incomes. Throughout the spring, the National Partnership for Women & Families will be highlighting the importance of Medicaid in the lives of our staff and their loved ones, proudly proclaiming Medicaid Matters. Below, we highlight the story of our colleague Jesse’s sister.
My sister TJ became a single mom at 25 years old. My sister, always a dedicated community member, had to leave her work, the city she had grown to love and uproot her life to move home for necessary family supports while still pregnant. In this turbulent time of transition, Medicaid was an essential safety net for TJ as an unemployed single mother. My sister received mental health care, dental care, reproductive health care and primary care because she had access to Medicaid health coverage.
Even with a full time job as a social worker, TJ made only $45,000 annually which was below a necessary stable and livable one-person income for herself and her daughter. Medicaid allowed my sister to reassess her career path and build personal and financial stability. After several years, my sister raised her income and eventually shifted to insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
While the move to ACA marketplace insurance was an absolutely brutal financial transition, given the significantly greater out of pocket costs compared to Medicaid, it would have been impossible without the support of Medicaid in the years prior. Access to Medicaid health coverage allowed my sister to breathe. She lost so much stability and community in the transition to single motherhood and Medicaid gave her a chance to reset. Medicaid health coverage allowed my sister to learn and adjust to motherhood and launch herself into a more stable, caring and engaged parent and community member. She is now a successful trauma-therapist and play and joy educator where she teaches adults the neuroscience of play and play as a social resistance practice. None of this would have been possible if she did not have access to compassionate providers and comprehensive health coverage through Medicaid.
Medicaid is a cornerstone of women’s health in the United States, serving as an aid for women at all stages of life. Nearly 1 in 5 adult women overall, and over 16 million women of reproductive age, receive their health insurance through Medicaid. Medicaid provides essential health coverage to mothers, older women, women with disabilities and women with low incomes when they need it most. Cuts to Medicaid like the ones proposed by Congressional Republicans threaten the health and economic security of these women and their families. Medicaid matters for women across the country—including my sister TJ.
Read more from the Medicaid Matters series:
