Don't let Scott Walker deny any more people Medicaid.
ThinkProgress has a
great, long piece profiling some of the people whose lives have likely been saved—and definitely made immensely better—by Medicaid expansion. Here are a few:
Fifty eight-year-old [Mark] Sigoloff, a freelance writer who lives in Illinois, was surprised when he got a notice in the mail last year telling him he was eligible for public insurance coverage. […]
One of the first things he did was go to the doctor. He knew he had issues with high blood pressure that he had been neglecting during the 11 years that he hadn’t gone to regular check-ups. But he didn’t expect to discover that he also had a brain tumor.
I always had a feeling I was a walking time bomb, and it turned out I was right.
Sigoloff was referred to a neurosurgeon and received radiation treatment. So far, everything seems to be going well. […]
Charles McClinon, a 50-year-old Ohio resident who lives with epilepsy, told ThinkProgress, “The peace of mind is worth more than anything. I could be a millionaire, but if I don’t have peace of mind, what good is it? And that’s one thing this type of insurance is good for. I know I can get the kind of care I need.” […]
Plagued with multiple sclerosis and having difficulty finding work, [Carol Fisher Hardaway] didn’t qualify for coverage in Texas because the political leaders there have refused to expand the Medicaid program. She ended up relocating to the Maryland area, where her son lives and where state officials have implemented the expansion, so she could have affordable access to health care. […]
She described her new coverage as “literally a miracle” when it comes to treating her chronic condition. “I’m not cured—I’ll never be cured. But I don’t writhe in spasms 12 times a day,” she said. “I think that’s pretty good!”
Fisher Hardaway has no great love for Gov. Rick Perry. "If Rick Perry had to go without insurance like I did, he would change things pretty quick, I think," she told ThinkProgress. "It’s very selfish to me. There are hundreds of thousands of people like me who are still struggling, stuck between a rock and a hard place."
There are still about 5 million people stuck there, not able to qualify for regular Medicaid and in states that refused to take the expansion, out of pure political spite. The stories ThinkProgress tells are the stories that could be happening in every single state, that should be happening in every state. It can happen in Texas and it can happen in Florida—the states with the highest number of uninsured residents—and it can happen in Wisconsin and in Maine with Democratic governors.
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The people profiled by ThinkProgress aren't remarkable, and their stories should not be, either. People getting the health care they need should warrant any attention by the media—it should just be how it works in this country. If we elect a few more Democrats to office, it will be.