A Wisconsin Senator hears constituents’ concerns about Medicaid.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, stopped in Green Bay at Curative Connections as part of her “Hands Off Medicaid Tour.”
According to her office, Congressional Republicans are moving ahead with a “Budget Reconciliation” plan that will slash Medicaid and threaten to take away healthcare from Wisconsinites to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.
“They (Republicans) has set in motion a process to look at cutting as much as $880 billion out, which is almost a trillion dollars out of Medicaid,” she said. “And that would be devastating as applied across the country.”
Baldwin listened to stories from constituents about their experiences with Medicaid, helping them with children with special needs to get them out of drug addiction.
One Manitowoc parent, Barb Rich, shared her story about her son Andy Jung to the Wisconsin senator.
In 1988, Andy got a traumatic brain injury after he was hit by a car while riding his bike to the city pool.
After that, Rich said it was Medicaid that helped provide resources for Andy, like a wheelchair and home care.
Andy eventually went back to school but also attended summer classes at CP, a nonprofit organization that provides services for those with special needs.
She also received help from Medicaid through that.
“They have given him OT (Occupational Therapy) and PT (Physical Therapy),” she explained. “They have given him speech. They have given him all of the therapies that they have there. And he has progressed beautifully.”
Andy is now living away from home, but Barb says if Medicaid services were stopped, she would become his full-time guardian, which would be hard for her to do, being in her late 70s.
She is hopeful for the future, but she is angry.
She stated, “I would like to tell the folks in Washington to get their head out of the sand and start realizing what they are doing when they are cutting these programs because I don’t think they realize the ramifications of what they are doing.”
Rich also reflected on something positive.
She tells Seehafernews.com that she remembers Manitowoc rallying around Andy following the accident and holding a fundraiser for him, which allowed her to get a van.
Baldwin started the “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign back in March.
Republicans like 8th District Republican Congressman Tony Wied have been asked about the cuts, to which he said the government needs to be prudent in looking at programs to get rid of bureaucratic waste, fraud, and abuse during a tele-townhall in March.
