FENTON, Mo. — When Kim and Rich Rankin decided to adopt, they figured they would bring home an older child. They were almost finished raising seven children, and thought they were done with babies.
Then they saw a photo of “Baby S,” with his soft eyes and round cheeks. Rich suggested putting it on the fridge.
“We’re going to bring that baby home if we put his picture on the refrigerator,” Kim recalled saying.
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One should not adopt and depends on nation’s welfare to pay for the child’s medical needs. It is not fair to taxpayers. Reduce welfare could lower taxes for everyone and let people who need the services pay for the services themselves.
These are what true patriots look like. If we are serious about “right to life”, we can not turn our backs on the most vulnerable in our society no matter the cost, even if it requires more taxes. All children should be covered automatically. If Planned Parenthood is defunded then every pregnant woman should be covered automatically.
In my opinion, a little boy will be the last one cut. They will cut the elderly. We already have the “death panels ” under Ibama care. No one likes the elderly.
I will not be cut and neither will any other elderly. We will get whats coming to us.
It’s important to note that kids with disabilities grow up into adults with disabilities. And while some adults with disabilities are able to fully support themselves, many more can not.
Did you ever wonder who pays for group homes, or day programs, or transportation for adults with disabilities?
The answer is, Medicaid, through its Waiver program.
These programs aren’t cheap, either: in my area, the cost of a group home is close to $40,000 a year!
Right now, in my state, there is a limited number of Waivers; there are tens of thousands of children and adults with disabilities waiting for an available one. And these are clearly the good old days!
If Medicaid is block-granted, Ohio will have a limited amount of funding to pay for Waivers for the disabled, nursing home beds for the destitute elderly, and medical care for our low-income citizens.
I can’t begin to imagine the arithmetic but clearly there will be a lot of suffering because of the new limits on funding. Here, in the richest nation on the history of the world…
I am stunned by the selfishness of some of the comments to this article. This is not fear-mongering. It is introducing a real person so that those who are blind to their own communities can make an attempt to see what cuts to medicaid might mean in terms of real people. That young boy could be any child. His disability is unusual, but the care he needs is representative of a lot of people. His parents voluntarily took on his care. Without them, and without medicaid, this child would be dead. As it is, he is living a loved life, and a joyful one. And he may grow up to become an adult with a meaningful life, both in his terms and in society’s. This should be the goal for all people. Are these people who are criticizing this article saying we should just let him die? What is it they *are* saying? It is unrealistic to expect that in a complex society, a small community can accommodate all the needs of people who cannot afford the cost of medical care, or supportive services. In my opinion, we are all richer when we make it possible for people with needs to live as close to a normal life as they can achieve. I live in an ordinary place, in an ordinary neighborhood. I look around me and see people who did not choose what they were handed, and who do the best they can to live their lives well. Some of them require assistance. Human beings have always lived in communities. And communities have always had some means of helping those who needed it. In America, our sense of community extends to the nation. We, as Americans, have agreed to take this responsibility as a moral value. Even at that, we are far behind other nations, even many without our resources. And people who cannot see beyond their idealogies or beyond the fear-mongering that they themselves are perpetuating, are trying to dismantle what little we, as a nation not yet fully matured, have accomplished.
Worry is a wasted emotion. Stay in the moment. Ask yourself, “at this moment is
Nathanial ok?” If the answer is yes, feel gratitude.
Do you know these people? Do you know enough about them to give them advise? I have always been taught that before one gives advise, be sure you know it is needed, and that it is useful. From reading the article, I think they have what they need. They are openly and honestly sharing their experience, and the things they have to be aware of, so that others can learn what many people in this country are up against. Your “advise” is gratuitous at best, and perhaps a bit on the arrogant side.
I think it is always counterproductive to worry about things that haven’t happened yet.
That’s because you live a privileged life and you don’t care about anyone else but yourself.
Why is our government trying to kill us dependent on Medicare ? We don’t get sick cause we want to. Why don’t they bring down the way to high prices of meds ? Do they get some kind of kickback ? What if it was one of their loved ones that needed help or them themselves, how would they feel ? What would they do with all that power they have then ?
Fear mongering doesn’t help anyone. Shame on you for trotting out a disabled child who does not receive benefits under the ACA, but a previously available pathway for the disabled, or children, or foster youth. I thought Stat was against “alternate facts”.
Because under the new healthcare budget, the plan is to reduce funds to Medicaid.
Fear mongering is telling people that they need to worry about radical terrorists that have only affected less than 400 people over 5 years. It was estimated by a Harvard 2009 study that people are 40% more likely to die if they have no insurance. In 2007 60% of people who filed bankruptcy, approx. 660,000 filed because of medical costs. Of those over 75% had insurance. these numbers were increasing substantially every year before the ACA. I used the 2009 stats because it was before the ACA and the 2007 stats because it was before the 2008 economic crisis. There are consequences for large numbers of people due to healthcare legislation.
It has not been established that medicare will be “cut” to the extent there will be suffering and death like the plague covering the U.S. Articles like this tend to elevate fear and distrust to a frenzied level. These articles usually contain photos of lovely young children in need of extensive care. We need to wait and see just what “cuts” if any will be applicable to those in honest need. To think there is not any graft and cheating in the system is not facing reality.
This article is about Medicaid, not Medicare. Two different programs.
Thanks Linda, for catching my error on the program names …I did mean medicaid. Just wanted to point out the way the media escalates fear and distrust by running with rumors. Whenever the Democrats wanted to reinforce a program regardless of the program intent, they would always work in the phrase, “It’s for the kids”, knowing that is a big attention/sympathy getter.
I don’t want to “wait and see” if these cuts will directly affect my son’s medical needs. Let’s fight so that funding doesn’t change. I have to fight so hard to get what we have now and that is without the upcoming reduced funding.