Dear editor:
Oh please, Senator Barrasso, M.D., long out of practice – you and Senator Lummis and Representative Hageman keep fibbing to us about Medicaid cuts.
Maybe you should trade your fine taxpayer-funded health care for Wyoming Medicaid.
Generally speaking, you’d have to be aged (65+), blind or disabled; a child under 18; an adult providing care for children; or pregnant … AND be very low-income, about half or less of the income needed to cover basic monthly expenses in our state.
Life at a Medicaid-eligible income is a life of constant worry and struggle. Burdensome paperwork supposedly aimed at “fraud” won’t help.
Medicaid payments are made to medical providers (like our rural hospitals), not the low-income individuals eligible for assistance. But Congress has shown little appetite for going after real fraudsters - like some big drug companies - probably because they fund campaigns.
The largest category of Wyoming Medicaid spending is for the aged/blind/disabled group, followed by children.
The so-called “able-bodied” adults that politicians keep yammering about account for less than 10% of Wyoming Medicaid spending. Who are the supposedly “able-bodied”?
The chronically ill who aren’t designated as “disabled,” but aren’t well enough to work steadily and pull themselves out of poverty.
The middle-aged who quit work to care for elderly parents instead of putting them in a Medicaid-funded bed in a nursing home (thereby saving taxpayers’ money, and costing themselves future Social Security).
The grandparents caring for preschoolers so the parents can try to make a living. Or the parent(s) caring for children at home, either by choice or because child care is nonexistent or unaffordable.
Caring for others IS work. It’s demanding, exhausting and often unrewarding work. And insisting that caregivers give up their caring work to “work” elsewhere means the entire family goes down.
Our Congressional delegation has refused to do its own work and exercise thoughtful oversight over programs to ensure they’re targeted efficiently.
Instead, they’ve wholeheartedly supported the lazy and cruel chainsaw approach of slashing medical research and health care … for what? To pay for tax cuts that most hardworking Wyoming families will see only a tiny slice of, with most of the pie going to the wealthiest 20% in our country.
Our electeds could make the Big Beautiful Bill provide Big Beautiful Health Care. But apparently they’d rather continue to drive Wyoming families into despair and our rural hospitals into bankruptcy.
Matthew 25:40. “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
Sincerely,
Sarah Gorin, Laramie
