That is the name of this essay by consumer columnist Michelle Singletary. Here is an excerpt:
When my siblings and I went to live with my grandmother, we were a sickly bunch. There were five of us. … I was 4. .. We were all undernourished. My brother Mitchell had seizures almost every night. He would lose consciousness and thrash about so much that he would wake up his twin, with whom he shared a bed. . . . [He needed regular treatment and medication.] My younger sister had a severe case of eczema. She scratched so much that she had dry ashen patches all over her legs and arms. She also had food allergies and asthma. And I had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Walking was difficult. At one point, the joint pain in my legs was so excruciating that I crumbled to the ground during recess as I tried to cross the schoolyard. I spent a summer in the hospital getting physical therapy. After my grandmother took us in, she applied for medical assistance through Medicaid. It was the only thing she ever asked for from the state. With five grandchildren to care for and only a low-wage nursing aide job, she could have gotten financial assistance. But Big Mama refused the money. “No, I only want the medical insurance,” she recalled telling the social worker. * * * The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Republican plan for replacing Obamacare, which expanded Medicaid, would result in a reduction of $880 billion in federal outlays for the program. That figure represents millions of Americans — including children — without health coverage who will suffer. It’s Mitchell. It’s my younger sister. It’s me.
