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.
READ: State-by-state Report by Democrats Projects Millions of People Could Lose Medicaid Coverage
I’m now on insurance provided by my husband’s employer, but I worry about what potential cuts to Medicaid will mean for the health and the independence of neighbors in my community. Without Medicaid funded coverage, I would have been forced to stop treatments for my immune deficiency, increasing my risk of serious respiratory infections of cancer. My experience plainly showed me how important Medicaid is and I now devote my work to healthcare advocacy for community members in our state. I’m proud of the work we’ve done, but there is so much further to go. Medicaid is actively under attack right now and we need to spring to action.
Last month, Marc Stier of the Pennsylvania Policy Center wrote in a blog post that “most people on Medicaid are on it for only a short period of time. People go on Medicaid when, usually due to bad economic times, they lose their job or health insurance and are typically on it for two or three years. And when the economy recovers, they get a new job or a better job with health insurance.”
There are so many misplaced moral judgements on people receiving benefits when we should remember that we’ll all need these services at one point or another. I think we should live in a society that values human dignity, covers health care for kids that are blind and disabled, supports caregivers, and provides hospice and palliative care. Medicaid does all of these things – it provides high quality care and for less money than the for-profit sector.
WATCH: Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick Won’t Host a Town Hall So His Constituents Did
We should be celebrating that. We should be proud of that. And lawmakers like Mackenzie and Fitzpatrick should not be gutting that.
Our community in Eastern Pennsylvania isn’t ready for what is coming if Representatives Mackenzie and Fitzpatrick and other House Republicans have their way with the budget and cut Medicaid. The $880 billion in cuts passed by the Republican-led House would blow a hole in our state budget and, according to a statement from the Pennsylvania Hospital Association, leaving over 626,000 Pennsylvanians without health coverage. I call on Representatives Mackenzie and Fitzpatrick to meet with their constituents here in Eastern Pennsylvania to hear our demands, and stand up for us in Washington against a bill that will unnecessarily hurt our families and our communities.
