ATLANTA- Advocates for the disabled, like Evan Nodvin, of Atlanta, are fighting against potential cuts to Medicaid included in the American Health Care Act. Nodvin is one of many disabled people who has been able to live a healthy, and productive life because of the support that Medicaid provides him. States like Georgia, which do not spend much on Medicaid, would stand to lose under the AHCA, because federal funding toward Medicaid would be capped for the states.
Elly Yu, with WABE and NPR, reports:
Several decades ago, Evan Nodvin’s life probably would have looked quite different.
Nodvin has his own apartment just outside Atlanta, in Sandy Springs, Ga., which he shares with a roommate, and a job at a local community fitness center. He also has Down syndrome.
“I give out towels, and put weights away, and make sure people are safe,” the 38-year-old says.
To get to and from work, Nodvin relies on rides from people who are hired to help him. He also has a counselor to help him do daily chores like grocery shopping, cleaning and cooking. . .
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Georgia ranked the second lowest in Medicaid spending per enrollee in fiscal year 2011. Georgia currently gets about two federal dollars for every one dollar the state puts in, but the new plan would give states a capped amount of funding for Medicaid.
Custer said Medicaid in Georgia might be okay in the beginning, but as health care costs rise, states will increasingly have to shoulder the burden.
“That means states are going to have to either find the money to maintain the program or shrink the program, either by covering fewer services, or covering fewer people, or both,” he says.
Read more at NPR.
