Advocacy and Public Policy
The Many Faces of Medicaid
Medicaid: Just the word conjures up a dark hole down which the taxpayer throws more and more and more money. But few people know much about what Medicaid really is. Ask the person on the street, and the typical answer will be that it’s medical care for low-income single mothers and their children. Some people may also know that Medicaid pays for nursing home care for people who have used up all of their own money.
Beyond that, most people don’t really know much about Medicaid. The members of the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council know a lot about Medicaid, however, and want to share their knowledge with taxpayers and policymakers by letting them in to the lives of some citizens who rely on Medicaid for, yes, health care, and, yes, nursing homes, but for much else as well.
The DD Council has chosen to spread its message through a project it calls, Medicaid: Our Neighbors, Our Communities. In collaboration with United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan and Message Makers, a media company in Lansing, the Council is shooting a DVD of Michigan citizens who get Medicaid services of a variety of types.
One couple whose family gets medical care from Medicaid has agreed to be filmed. Another, a child, has a disability; Medicaid pays for his basic and specialized health care. Yet another person who is willing to be filmed was in a nursing home after a stroke. Her care there was paid by Medicaid. Now she lives in her own apartment through another Medicaid program called MIChoice. Another person filmed gets in-home supports from aides to help her with the activities she can’t do himself. Those supports are also paid by Medicaid, and the annual cost paid by Medicaid now for her services is less than it would be for a nursing home.
Not everyone who uses Medicaid is on it forever. Sometimes a person uses it to get through during a period of low income, but doesn’t need it any more after he or she returns to work and gets employer-based insurance.
Another group that gets Medicaid services is people with developmental disabilities who get services from their Community Mental Health Board (CMH). Medicaid pays for a wide variety of person-centered services from CMHs. Examples include community living supports (for example, an aide in their home); physical, occupational or speech therapy; assistive technology; and supported/integrated employment. There are many other Medicaid programs. It is an invaluable program for people with low income and people with disabilities.
Updated March 2007
View a Printer-Friendly Version
Go back to top