Please tell us how you, your family or your community has benefited from Medicaid coverage for dental care, vision care, and transportation assistance: Those who had not previously had access to care (at an affordable level) had gone YEARS, literal YEARS, without any sort of medical care. My father in law could have used some medical care in that time, but according to the guidelines at the time, he did not qualify for any assistance. He had a severe stroke due to not being able to afford medications, medications that could have prevented this. We could not even help him because the cost was so high. Now, he has care, but it is too late. He will never have the ability to walk and talk like before, simply because he couldn’t afford his medicines that could have prevented this, he may not live to see his grand kids or see his other children get married. In fact, we moved up our date because we weren’t sure if he was going to make it. Every person should have access to basic care at a cost that doesn’t mean choosing between food and medicines. This is something everyone should have no matter what. People in my community can now see a doctor to manage their health. I have seen grandparents live longer and be able to meet their grand kids because they can now afford to see a doctor. Dental infections can become deadly very quickly because of how quickly it can spread to your blood stream. Dental care is literally essential to living. People who were in pain before because of their teeth can now eat again, amazing what dental care can do! Vision services mean that people can see, and if you can see, you can get a job, learn how to read, help children with homework or go back to school. You can’t do any of that with glasses that are 5 years old and an outdated prescription when the cheapest glasses you can get out of pocket at Vision Works starts at $70, and that’s without an exam. Transportation means people can get to and from a decent grocery store (which is severely lacking in the west end of louisville) they can get to the doctor, to a job interview, work or school. With a public transportation system as unreliable as tarc, those of us who have the ability to help those in need should do so. If that means this is what my taxes go to, helping my fellow humans in need, I am 100% in support of it.

Please tell us how eliminating these benefits would affect you, your family, or your community: HOW? THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO AFFORD TO SEE A DOCTOR! People will pick their children over themselves. And that usually means going without, in this case going to the doctor, the eye doctor, the dentist. How can we expect people to be involved in their community when their mouth hurts too much to even open it? Or when they can’t see the street sign because their glasses are so old. How can we expect people to pay so much for vision and dental services, and the cost of living, on less than $10/hr? People are going to forgo their medical needs for their other immediate needs. Not because they want to, but because they have to. Everyday we hear people in our office say they hadn’t been to a doctor in years before ObamaCare because they couldn’t afford it. This is not acceptable now. It will never be acceptable. Eliminating benefits would mean that people are going to get sicker and sicker and use money in other places (like ER visits) because they can’t see a primary care doctor without insurance or a whole lot of money. People are going to lose their vision, their teeth and much more by taking these thing away. How would I feel if it were my mother?