Your Opinion: Medicaid views insulting

Dear Editor:

I am responding to Nelson Otto's letter published on July 11. He contends people are confusing health insurance with health care and expressed dismay that funding for health insurance for the poor and disabled (Medicaid) is deducted from our salaries. He went on to say the less fortunate should stop coveting what isn't theirs.

My daughter and I had health care covered under Medicaid in the early '70s. Even though I was working (and paying taxes) our income was too small to afford routine immunizations, cancer screenings, or treatment for sinus infections and other minor issues. Medicaid covered my emergency surgery when an accident severed the nerves and muscle in my left hand. Had I not been covered, Memorial Hospital (now Capitol Region) would have been stuck with 100 percent of the cost and my credit would have been ruined.

Over time I was fortunate enough to earn higher salaries and leave Medicaid behind. Since then I've paid enough taxes to cover the Medicaid benefit I used many times over. I find Mr. Otto's contention that people who need help need it because they are lazy or make bad choices insulting. Most of the people covered under Medicaid are children, the elderly poor and the people with severe disabilities.

Most see Medicare and Social Security as earned benefits. We pay in and expect these benefits to be there for us when we retire. I would like to invite your readers to consider Medicaid as an earned benefit as well.

Medicaid is safety-net insurance. If you fall on hard times (perhaps a devastating illness or accident your health plan doesn't fully cover) Medicaid will be there for you and prevent you from losing everything. Moreover, if your friends, neighbors or loved ones fall on hard times, Medicaid will be there for them.

To begrudge a poor child getting a life-saving bone marrow transplant, a destitute older diabetic getting insulin or a quadriplegic getting an oxygen pump is beyond my comprehension. I'm glad to know my taxes are providing this help. It helps me sleep better at night.

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