CLEVELAND — The nation's Medicaid Program, with its $880 billion budget, is an attractive target for Republican lawmakers in Washington who are looking for places to slash spending.
Its programs impact around 80 million U.S. adults and children including nearly three million Ohioans like Breanna Sprenger of Parma.
"I have caregivers 22 hours every single day, and they help me with all of my daily living activities," she said.
Breanna was born without her legs and her right arm. News 5 first introduced you to her in 2009 when she was involved in an adapted aquatics swim program. Swimming was a passion she would pursue for years. A Medicaid waiver provides Breanna with the caregivers that allow her to live independently. Something she fears would be in jeopardy if Medicaid's budget is cut.
"It makes me very nervous hearing about Medicaid cuts possibly happening because Medicaid has allowed me to live an independent life as a person with a disability, and I would be significantly impacted by that, and I would not be able to live on my own very more which is something that I worked really hard to achieve," she said.
She's not alone. Amber Gibbs, superintendent and CEO of the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, said, "We have at the county board about 5,500 people that rely on Medicaid waivers, but there are a lot of other people that we serve that rely on other Medicaid services."
That's why the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities says any cuts would be "devastating" and urges people to contact their lawmakers to make them aware of that.
"To let them know that these cuts are unacceptable, that there needs to be another way to find money in the budget if you need to do that and to please help us protect these Medicaid benefits for our most vulnerable citizens," Gibbs said.
"It would mean a tremendous change for us in terms of the services they might be able to access. It will also be devastating in terms of our budget as an organization," she said. "We rely on that Medicaid funding, we also rely on levy dollars from a tax levy that taxpayers passed back in 2005 and we may need to go back to taxpayers sooner than expected with those Medicaid cuts."
There's another twist: You'll remember Ohio Governor John Kasich expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in 2013. The agreement was that the federal government would eventually pay 90% of the cost and the state the other 10%. This move added more than 700,000 Ohioans to the insured list. Gov. Mike DeWine opposed the expansion as attorney general but told News 5 in 2018 when he was running for governor that it was a bell too big to unring, and he would keep it.
"We will keep Medicaid expansion," DeWine said in 2018. "We want to make it sustainable in case, for example, the Federal Government decides instead of paying 90 plus percent that they're going to drop that down to a much lower figure."
Along those lines, DeWine included a clause in the just-released state budget proposal stating that if Congress decides to pay less than 90%, the state would immediately discontinue all medical assistance for the extra 700,000 covered under the Medicaid expansion.
At this stage, nothing is set in stone, and some on the far right, like former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, have warned Republicans to be careful with Medicaid, a program relied on by many MAGA voters. The president himself challenged lawmakers this month to balance the budget, yes, but "don't touch Social Security, don't touch Medicare, Medicaid, just leave them alone."
In the meantime, Breanna will watch and wait as she continues to pay forward what she has been given. For the last three years, she's been a Good Life Ambassador for the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, going to schools and businesses to teach disability etiquette and awareness. This job also puts her in contact with others who are nervously waiting as well.
"Yes, I know many people with disabilities in my community, and we would all be very impacted," she said.
