I depend on Medicaid

People with disabilities need support to work and pay

Iam a registered Republican living in Pittsburgh. I am a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh pursuing a Ph.D. in rehabilitation sciences. I acquired a spinal cord injury which left me paralyzed and requires me to use a wheelchair.

In order to live my life and get the support I need, I gratefully use Medicaid so that an attendant can help me get into and out of bed, get dressed and for other personal care. No private insurer covers these longterm services.

I am employed part-time by the University of Pittsburgh as a graduate student researcher while I finish my degree. As such, I am also a taxpayer.

Like me, there are many working people with disabilities who need Medicaid services to be able to work and pay taxes. Like many others with disabilities, I am able to work precisely

because Medicaid provides the attendant care services which allow me to go to work and to school.

My plan is to finish my degree to get a job with a salary high enough to allow me to pay for my own services and stop using Medicaid. However, I need Medicaid to be able to go to work and school so that I can get the degree.

I and many other people with disabilities will be harmed if the federal government cuts services and funding from Medicaid, as the newly revealed Senate health care bill proposes to do. In Pennsylvania, people will lose essential services. It is likely that people with disabilities like mine will not be able to live in their homes and apartments. People like me will have to move to nursing homes and institutions which are substantially more expensive than home-based care.

There are changes that could be made to eligibility and income limits that could substantially improve the Medicaid system in terms of services and costs, but wide-reaching cuts and caps are not the answer.

As most Americans know, federal laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (signed into law by George H.W. Bush) protect the rights of people with disabilities and provides advocacy to ensure that our needs are met. A lot of those protections are built into federal regulations.

The Republican health care proposal would devolve considerable authority to the states. I support states’ rights, but the federal government is a unifying force and has challenged states that have not protected people who cannot advocate for themselves.

Even as it is currently funded, Medicaid falls short for people with disabilities. Many parent caregivers are seniors — longtime taxpayers who desperately need support to care for their loved ones in their homes, which is more cost effective than having them live in institutions. I am concerned that this segment of the population is not being considered in the Republican plan to limit Medicaid funding.

Previous Republican administrations have understood this issue. These individuals and their families have well-documented needs, they are not gaming the system, and they need the help of the government and their fellow citizens.

I ask Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, my representative, to sit down with me and other Republicans, taxpaying colleagues and thoughtful, well-meaning advocates to discuss ways to change Medicaid for people with disabilities while maintaining the services we have and saving both the federal government and states money. We can help you understand how Medicaid can further improve the lives of people with disabilities.

We understand that Medicaid needs to be reformed, but it can be changed in a way to benefit the people it serves and the government. Those of us with disabilities are the ones dependent on the system. We know what works and what can be improved.