Please tell us how you, your family or your community has benefited from Medicaid coverage for dental care, vision care, and transportation assistance: without transportation assistance, community members are not able to access any type of needed healthcare, and may need to wait until a medical situation becomes an “emergency” to access ambulance services, which are more expensive. Without vision coverage, adults who need glasses to drive, work, etc. might not be able to obtain these needed medical tools and this could impact their ability to get and keep a job to provide for their families. Neglecting dental care can lead to physical illnesses which require more money to address, and can even lead to serious illness or death for elderly community members or those suffering with chronic illnesses.

Please tell us how eliminating these benefits would affect you, your family, or your community: Many people in our community rely on these benefits to have true access to basic medical care–vision and dental services are not “extras” or “luxuries” that can be cut out without having a negative impact on overall health and well-being; the less healthy any member of our community is, the more it costs the entire community–it just doesn’t make sense, financially or morally!!!!