Please tell us how you, your family or your community has benefited from Medicaid coverage for dental care, vision care, and transportation assistance: Personally I would be okay if I lose those specific benefits, those are not life or death for me. I think the biggest benefit of vision & dental are children being able to receive preventative care. For adults it’s also beneficial to be able to address vision or dental problems before they create systemic or permanent damage. And transportation is necessary b/c we don’t have adequate public transportation even in bigger cities in KY and healthcare is not accessible if people do not have transportation to it.

Please tell us how eliminating these benefits would affect you, your family, or your community: Loss of these benefits will directly impact vulnerable individuals in obvious ways relating to quality of life & over all health. It will also impact the ability for some to be a productive & active member of their community as it could impact their daily functioning, their confidence & mental health, and how they are perceived in society. The impact on general health will also be costly. Leaving dental or vision concerns unaddressed or not being able to maintain adequate or consistent medical care due to limited transportation will only lead to worsening conditions & increasingly systemic effects. The longer a health issue goes without management or intervention the larger the problem becomes and the more costly it will be to address.