The Stories team at the Center for American Progress Action Fund works with storytellers who author op-eds about how policy impacts their lives. The team helps elevate their op-eds.
The House is taking recess this week while the future of essential programs like Medicaid and SNAP, and the fate of those who rely on them, remains unclear. Rather than using that time to meet with constituents and hear our concerns, Representatives Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) are avoiding their commitments to democracy and are hiding from us. As someone who needed Medicaid-funded coverage when I was sick, I know firsthand how critical this program is. So, it frustrates me to see them avoid their responsibility as legislators and advocates.
My advocacy is driven by personal experience; while in college at Lehigh University, I began to experience symptoms of an immune deficiency, which ultimately prevented me from finishing my degree or being able to work. In the difficult following years, I relied on my parents’ insurance and an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan until Governor Tom Wolf expanded Medicaid access in Pennsylvania, making me eligible for Medical Assistance, a program funded through Medicaid dollars. It was the first time I wasn’t actively worried about health care costs bankrupting me or my parents, as my treatments can cost up to $30,000 a month out of pocket. Worrying that much when you’re sick doesn’t help you get any healthier and I was grateful this Medicaid funded program could bring me the peace of mind I needed. Medicaid actually gave me the freedom and agency to become physically and financially independent, and I was able to start working again in 2021. It changed my life alongside the 3.1 million other Pennsylvanians who rely on Medicaid.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Bucks County Beacon.
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