News Release

“My Medicaid, My Life”

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Reuters reports in “Stripping Americans of health insurance could be deadly: study” that: “Based on findings from a variety of large studies, Americans without health insurance faced 40 percent higher odds of dying during the study periods than the privately insured, the report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.”

See reports on disability rights protests on Capitol Hill about Medicaid cuts last week and this week.

ALICE WONG, disabilityvisibilityproject at gmail.com, @SFdirewolf
Wong is a the founder of the Disability Visibility Project and a co-partner in Disabled Writers, a resource created by reporter s.e. smith to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists.

She recently wrote the piece “My Medicaid, My Life” for the New York Times. Wong wrote: “‘Program flexibility’ is code for the decimation of Medicaid that will put lives like mine at risk. Some people with disabilities may have to live in nursing homes if community-based services wither away under this flexibility and reform. We cannot disappear again after a history of segregation and institutionalization. When Republicans talk about freedom and choice, they don’t realize that Medicaid gives those very things to people with disabilities.

“This past March marked my 25th year of being a recipient of Medicaid. When I was young, I felt shame and embarrassment at being one of ‘those people’ on benefits. Today I am unapologetically disabled and a fully engaged member of society. None of that would be possible without Medicaid.”