Help Keep Medicaid Benefits For Our Kids
Congress vs. Medicaid: Make Your Case
From a Parent
| Tell Congress How Medicaid Values People | |
| The MVP 20,000 Challenge: ANCOR Members to Send 20,000 Contacts to Capitol Hill by December 23 | |
| The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (a.k.a. the “Super Committee”) has been charged with cutting $1.2 to $1.5 trillion from the deficit over 10 years and must propose specific federal spending cuts by November 23. Entitlements, especially Medicaid, and other disability discretionary spending are marked with targets for the Super Committee to slash. (about the committee) Following the November 23 proposal, Congress must take a vote by December 23 on whether to implement the Super Committee’s recommendations.
To win this battle, we must show that Medicaid is not just a number on a ledger to be slashed, but is an essential part of the lives of people in every community across America. We must challenge our elected leaders to respond not to the “prize” of billions cut from a budget, but to the human stories we know all too well. This is the time for each of us to reach out to our networks—providers, individuals with disabilities, Direct Support Professionals, families, donors and other allies—and enlist their support in making the case that Medicaid Values People (MVP). How? Personalize a letter to your member of Congress. ANCOR is challenging its members, Direct Support Professionals, and individuals with disabilities and their families to send 20,000 messages to Congress by December 23. This is your first opportunity to makes steps toward that goal. Use the letter below to talk about Medicaid. Personalize and be specific! Members of Congress have asked that ANCOR members talk about what cuts would mean to individuals with disabilities access to services and the job loss that would befall your community. Send the message that Medicaid is a lifeline for millions of individuals with disabilities, and cuts would result in less jobs and spending right in your state and Congressional district. Make sure the country knows how close to home Medicaid is. Our Message Medicaid funds make possible vital, life-transforming supports and services to people with disabilities. Cutting these funds will have devastating effects on individuals with disabilities, their families and their local economies. |
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Olivia Pilgrim will graduate First Step’s Preschool program and enter public kindergarten in the fall of this year. She is active and happy and is anxious to start school. However, the first five years of her life have been a real challenge.
Olivia was born with a heart defect and had her first open-heart surgery when she was one week old. She was also born with DiGeorge Syndrome, a rare congenital disease that affects an infant’s immune system. She has no thyroid or parathyroid glands. In addition, she has scoliosis.
At 18 months, Olivia was still not walking. We took an aggressive approach to her treatment and upon our pediatrician’s referral placed her in the First Step program. In addition to being a part of First Step’s Preschool program, Olivia has received physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy at First Step. Olivia underwent her second open-heart surgery at three years of age and because of the scoliosis has to have a surgical procedure on her back every six months.
Olivia was a full-term baby and weighed 7lbs-11 oz. at birth. We did not expect any problems, and it was a shock when, just after birth, she had to be put on oxygen. Within hours she was med-flighted to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. We didn’t know what to do.
Medicaid has seen us through the last five years. We don’t know what we would have done without it. Today, Olivia still has some delays, but she is so much farther along than we ever thought she would be. Please contact our President, Senators, and Representatives and ask them not to make cuts in the Medicaid program. There are other children out there just like Olivia, and I hate to think where they would be without the help of Medicaid.
— Amber Pilgrim, Olivia’s mother
