The author’s family. Photo agreed with Sarah Baker Pendleton
Now that the Senate has accepted its budget account, the house is voting this week for my ability to commit to the medically complex care children. Of course, this is not what they call it, but when this law is $ 930 billion from Medicaid, it is looking forward to care for the children of care.
Four in 10 children across the US are Medicaid, including 368,000 guardians such as mine who are entitled to Medicaid benefits through the care system. All of these children will be injured by these reductions, but for those who are in the care system, they can make the difference between forever finding homes or growing up in institutional care.
My husband Nice and I have been patronizing about 30 children over the last 14 years. We know the necessary benefits of Medicaid in the care system, Almost half of them have special health care needs; All children of the care system are entitled to Medicaid benefits, and for many, this benefit has been extended after adoption or aging to ensure continuous health and safety.
Medicaid saved the life of every care child who came through my door, and that is what made it first of all to cherish – and accept some of those care children, and the benefits we continue to ensure that we can meet their constant medical needs. Medicaid’s incisions would be disastrous for medical complex children, such as my all over the US.
I know it very closely for Anseley, my wonderful little girl who loved color yellow, balloons and listening to music. Anseley came to us as an adoptive parent with complex medical problems. Later we accepted her and stayed at her loving families until she died in 2019 at the age of 5. In a short time, Anseley brought us so much love and joy to our family and activated my “defense bone”, turning me into a medical supporter of a sophisticated care system and inspiring me to inspire children, such as her.
The author with one of the medically complex children she took care of. Photo agreed with Sarah Baker Pendleton
For Anseley I’m a man who sees people as valuable no matter who they are. For Medicaid, I can open my own home for children like Ansleley, which would otherwise be too expensive for us and most families.
Anseley was not a burden because loving a child is never a burden, but she had complex medical needs for life. The Medicaid coverage due to the necessary treatments and treatments has also released resources to provide it with enhanced opportunities, to pay for additional services she needed to thrive and live the best life with us.
Medicaid provides fundamental support to help with medically complex care children, such as I think that all life in my communities is home to love and friendship and enrich the life of everyone they touch. Our daughter Luci, Micropreemie, born in just 27 weeks, also came to us through the care system and fighting behavior and emotional regulation. It receives Medicaid coverage after adoption to maintain its critical mental health needs that will require lifetime help.
Our youngest girl Lilah, as well as micropreemia, started 22 weeks in the care system and survived due to Medicaid. Medicaid allowed her to bring her home with her, access oxygen at home and get operations and other care she needed to flourish.
Members of Micropreemie Support Groups often tell me that without Medicaid they would have been bankrupt or financially damaged; No one expects premature birth, while NICU will cost millions of dollars, and medical complex prehemia is experiencing high health care needs for life.
The five -year -old Z, recently adopted after four years in our home, hearing and visual impairment, has a spasmodic four -legged, uses a feeding tube and lives when the traumatic effect of brain injury changes. He is extremely useful in his equipment, such as the Tobii Dynavox Eye gaze apparatus, which allows him to communicate directly with us when he does not feel good he wants to play with the toy and what music he wants to play.
He was able to introduce himself and reach the community simply unrealistic. He can go to school with his peers and interact with his teachers, understand and answer what they teach. It would have been unimaginable without critical equipment that we could never give ourselves. By presenting the Z tools he needs to communicate, he opened up the whole of his own and our world.
Each child deserves this type of access, and Medicaid provides it possible to guard children with medical complexity and disabilities, to forever, instead of crushing in institutional care, whether it is a hospital, public office or nursing home.
Without it, I could not afford to take care of my care children, and the children I accepted through the care system would also lose the coverage that protects them at home, safely and loved. They may have been forced to the institutions because of their medical needs, as is done with several children we already know, waiting for adopted home in public institutions.
Medicaid is also very important for the unification of the family, the main purpose of the guardian system whenever possible. We had medically complex custodians that were able to combine with family members due to Medicaid; Those family members could take those children because they knew their medical needs would be met. They were able to pull those children out of the care system and raise them.
It would be painful at the relatives that you should be hesitant due to financial concerns.
As a custody mom, my vocation is to take care of medically complex children. I do not believe that the brutal reduction of Medicaid in this draft law is what Jesus meant, saying, “Let the little kids come to me” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” We are trained to care for the sick in this world, especially for children.
I pray that when my time on this earth is done, I will connect again with my daughter Angeley. Meanwhile, I will ensure that her legacy lives as coziness, love and shelter for children, just like her. I have no idea that I will have to close my home because of the inability to afford health costs associated with the health expenses of a final or disabled child who need family costs.
Disabled and medically complex children are already suffering enough. Even for one child who is not able to access home and community life, there is too much child.
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