Sneaky New Move By Shameless Republicans Puts Millions Of American Lives In Danger
Jamie Davis Smith
My daughter Claire loves ice cream sundaes, trips to amusement parks and watching “Gossip Girl” with her little sister while lounging on the sofa. None of this should be remarkable. However, because Claire is disabled and has complex medical needs, including asthma, epilepsy, autism, and cardiac, pulmonary and cognitive issues, her years living happily, and mostly healthily, at home were never promised.
Not all that long ago, children like Claire would have grown up in cold, sterile institutions instead of at home with their families. That’s because most private insurance plans, including Claire’s, don’t cover many of the medical costs and supports disabled people, including children, need to survive, attend school, live at home and be an active part of their communities.
It is only because of access to Medicaid that Claire, and countless other disabled children across the country, have been able to grow up at home with their families, where they are wanted and loved. Medicaid has helped pay for the bed Claire needs to safely sleep at home, the wheelchair she uses for trips to the park and the hearing aid she uses to hear what others are saying.
Claire is nonverbal, and Medicaid has paid for the assistive communication device she uses to let us know, in simple terms, what’s on her mind. Medicaid has paid for the chair Claire uses to keep her upright when she’s eating and the straps that keep her safe in our car now that she’s outgrown a traditional car seat. Without Medicaid, Claire wouldn’t have access to the countless occupational, physical, speech, audiology and behavioral therapies that allow her to attend school and become as independent as possible, even if that looks a little different for her than it does for most people. Medicaid has allowed her to face countless health scares and accessibility barriers head-on and emerge with dignity.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sneaky-move-shameless-republicans-puts-163623987.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
they see the disabled as non-entities, while calling themselves CHRISTIANS. 
In the clearest sign that Republicans know what they are doing is not just wrong but shameful, they waited until late at night on Mother’s Day to release the text of Trump’s devastating “big, beautiful bill” that would gut Medicaid, hoping it would go unnoticed. Then, continuing the pattern of wanting to avoid attention, the GOP convened a meeting under the cover of darkness to debate the bill, whose funding cuts likely would take Medicaid away from my daughter and millions of other people with disabilities who rely on the essential program. Despite the gravity of the late-night meeting for millions of Americans, at least one GOP congressman slept through part of the discussion, seemingly unbothered by the deadly consequences for constituents in his district and beyond, including my own daughter.
Millions of other Americans who get health insurance through Medicare and the Affordable Care Act also stand to lose access to health care under this bill. All told, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that if passed, the “big, beautiful bill” would result in 14 million Americans losing their health insurance. Among them are the most vulnerable members of our society: the chronically ill, the elderly and the disabled. Without sufficient Medicaid funding, hospitals across the country, particularly in rural areas, will be forced to shut their doors.
