The nation’s Medicaid Program, with its $880 billion budget, is an attractive target for Republican lawmakers in Washington who are looking for places to slash spending.
Its programs reach approximately 80 million adults and children in the United States, including nearly three million Ohioans such as Breanna Sprenger of Parma.
“I have carers 22 hours every single day, and they help me with all of my daily living activities,” she recalled.
Breanna was born missing her legs and right arm. News 5 first introduced you to her in 2009, when she participated in an adapted aquatics swim program.
Swimming was a passion she pursued for many years. A Medicaid waiver provides Breanna with carers, allowing her to live independently. Something she fears will be jeopardised if the Medicaid budget is cut.
“It makes me very nervous hearing about Medicaid cuts possibly happening because Medicaid has allowed me to live an independent life as a person with a disability, and I would be significantly impacted by that, and I would not be able to live on my own very more which is something that I worked really hard to achieve,” she told me.
She is not alone. Amber Gibbs, superintendent and CEO of the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, stated, “We have about 5,500 people on the county board who rely on Medicaid waivers, but there are a lot of other people that we serve who rely on other Medicaid services.”
That is why the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities says any cuts would be “devastating” and encourages people to contact their legislators to make them aware of this.
“To let them know that these cuts are unacceptable, that there needs to be another way to find money in the budget if you need to do that and to please help us protect these Medicaid benefits for our most vulnerable citizens,” according to Gibbs.
“It would represent a significant shift for us in terms of the services they could access. It will also have a devastating impact on our organization’s budget,” she added.
“We rely on that Medicaid funding, we also rely on levy dollars from a tax levy that taxpayers passed back in 2005 and we may need to go back to taxpayers sooner than expected with those Medicaid cuts.”
There is another twist. You’ll recall that Ohio Governor John Kasich expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2013. The agreement was that the federal government would eventually pay 90% of the cost, with the state covering the remaining 10%.
This move added over 700,000 Ohioans to the insured list. Gov. Mike DeWine opposed the expansion while serving as attorney general, but when running for governor in 2018, he told News 5 that it was a bell too big to unring, and he would keep it.
“We will keep Medicaid expansion,” DeWine stated in 2018. “We want to make it sustainable in case, for example, the Federal Government decides instead of paying 90 plus percent that they’re going to drop that down to a much lower figure.”
Along those lines, DeWine included a clause in the recently released state budget proposal stating that if Congress decides to pay less than 90%, the state will immediately discontinue all medical assistance for the additional 700,000 people covered by the Medicaid expansion.
At this point, nothing is set in stone, and some on the far right, such as former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, have warned Republicans to be cautious about Medicaid, a program on which many MAGA voters rely.
The president challenged lawmakers this month to balance the budget, but “don’t touch Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, just leave them alone.”
In the meantime, Breanna will continue to pay forward what she has received. For the past three years, she has served as a Good Life Ambassador for the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, visiting schools and businesses to teach disability etiquette and awareness. This job also connects her with others who are nervously waiting as well.
“Yes, I know many people with disabilities in my community, and we would all be very impacted,” she told me.
