Please tell us how you, your family or your community has benefited from Medicaid coverage for dental care, vision care, and transportation assistance: Me, and my brother, who on expanded Medicaid, we’re able to get our first dental fist in about 20 years. We had cleanings, multiple fillings, and I was able to get four broken teeth extracted. We were also able to finally get new glasses, which we’d needed for about a decade. Glaucoma runs in our family, so it’s important to get regular checkups as much as possible.

Please tell us how eliminating these benefits would affect you, your family, or your community: It would be devastating. There’s a lot of extreme poverty in our area, and plenty that goes along with it like food insecurity, and lack of good quality water. Many people resort to drinking pop, because it’s cheap and “clean,” or bottled water which is not fluoridated. “Mountain dew mouth” is a common ailment, especially in young kids. Also, many recovering addicts have drug related issues with their teeth, and getting dental care with Medicaid can help them regain self-esteem and become better able to be hired into the workforce. Medicaid dental coverage has been a godsend.