Proposed changes could hurt many

In a couple of weeks, the House of Representatives will consider some changes in Medicaid that could hurt many people in Washington state. If in the last five years you helped your family by paying for a grandchild’s first year of college, or your daughter’s down payment on a house, you could be denied needed long-term care. If some reason you get sick, have a stroke or some other health crisis that exhaust your personal savings and require expensive nursing home care, you would be penalized. Under these changes, you would be denied care because the presumption would be that you helped your family in order to fool Medicaid. You would be presumed guilty, and denied care.

Please take the time to call your congressional representative and ask them to vote no on the budget bill. It will harm the health and long term care for some of the most vulnerable Americans.

Joe Dukes

Marysville