Letters: If we lose Medicaid, I don’t know what we’ll do.

Thoughtless Medicaid cuts

I’m the mother of an absolutely amazing 10-year-old son, Javier, who has Down syndrome. For Javi, that has come with other co-occurring conditions, the most concerning being severe obstructive sleep apnea, severe asthma, Graves’ disease and a floppy airway. Due to his sleep apnea, Javi stops breathing around 150 times a night, requiring constant monitoring at night. Thanks to Medicaid, we have a wonderful night nurse to help out.

If we lose Medicaid, I don’t know what we’ll do. We have good jobs, but there’s no way we could afford Javi’s night nurse without his waiver, so one of us, most likely me, would have to leave our job. I love what I do, but staying up all night to monitor Javi’s breathing would become my new job. I worry our finances would become even ti