Local Members of Disability Community Who Use Medicaid
These individuals and families have agreed to share their name, contact info, and story with the media. You can contact them for media interviews.
Name: Stacy Ellingen
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Residence: Oshkosh, Winnebago County
WHAT CUTS TO MEDICAID WOULD MEAN TO ME/MY FAMILY: The IRISprogram is funded by Medicaid. IRIS helps me be as independent as possible. Cuts to Medicaid and personal care services would be devastating to me. I've worked hard and overcome alot to get where I am; it would be ridiculously unfair to digress dueto a lack of funding/services.
Name: Gina and Andy Karau
Phone: 920.216.1809(Gina Cell)920.203.1993(Andy Cell)
Residence: Oshkosh, Winnebago County
WHAT CUTS TO MEDICAID WOULD MEAN TO ME/MY FAMILY: If Medicaid is cut, financially we wouldn’t be able to afford the services that are currently provided, and have been provided these past 4 years, for our son. (Let alone would we even KNOW about these services we are eligible for!) We are a middle class family, both parents working full time, with two children and a third on the way, and Medicaid has helped our son advance incredibly with all the help and services that have been provided to him. It has also saved him more than once, health wise, by allowing us to take him in to the hospital when it was dire to his life, and not worry about the consequences to our financial status. At 10 weeks old he had his first admittance to the hospital with aspiration of his lungs which can be deadly to a person with trisomy 21.
Currently the services we are utilizing that help us out are:
Family Support Service Coordinator for Winnebago County- she has been the leader in helping us to get an aide thru the state, for our son, to have at day care. He needs that one-on-one person to be with him throughout the day for safety and learning purposes. (Not to mention we couldn’t even get him into day care centers because they wouldn’t take him due to his need for that extra attention/direction – and he is not out of diapers at the age of 4 yet) The state pays more than half of her fee, and we pay the other portion. Which is incredible because there is no way we could afford her full pay for him. I would have had to quit my job and stay home with him, had we not gotten this help thru the state. (which again, I carry the insurance for our family, so that was not a good option) Our Coordinator also helped us come up with a plan of what we’d like her to do with him and work on with him daily. And since he’s had her with him, he has grown SO much in terms of listening and learning. It truly is life changing.
Badger Care (Forward Health) - we use this for Myles’ on top of my primary insurance of UMR thru work. Without this, we would have SO many medical expenses! He has seen/sees/uses – Ophthalmologist, Audiologist, Cardiologist, ENT doctor, Urologist, Speech Therapist, OT Therapist, Physical Therapist, Urgent Care, ER, Hospital Stays (multiple overnight), and a Genetic Counselor. On top of all the medicine he gets for his reoccurring lung issues …he also has a steroid inhaler, and a daily as needed inhaler. He needed a nebulizer as a baby as well which was provided to our family.
He has stayed overnight in the hospital twice, and been admitted three times, for pneumonia (aspiration of the lungs) which right there, had we not had the badger care coverage, I don’t know what we’d do.
We use the Katie Beckett program. We also used the Birth to Three program. We have received grants thru DSAW for him to attend summer speech sessions (2 years now in a row) At school he has an OT, Physical Therapist, Speech Pathologist and was in the Early Learning program for two full years.
Currently working on a grant thru DSAW to install a fence at our property out of safety concerns for him. And also a prescription for diapers, as he is 4 ½ and still not using the bathroom on his own….and not near that point yet.
I think that is everything?!? We benefit SO much from Medicaid, as do so many others, and without it our son would not have progressed nearly as much as he has. With the early intervention, and the kind, skilled people we have worked with who have guided us and shared in our milestones with him, we NEED this. He needs this.
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