Medicaid (Medical Assistance/MA)

Makes Life Possible

One in a series of fact sheets and stories about the importance of Medicaid

to persons with disabilities and their families

Personal Stories

Medicaid makes life possible for many Minnesotans with disabilities and their families.

The following is a sampling of individuals and families who depend on Medicaid’s supports.

A Rockford Mother’s Story

My son Taylor is eleven years old, is legally blind, has several conditions which make him medically fragile, uses a wheelchair, and cannot speak or communicate his needs. Taylor is total care, 24 hours a day.

I personally suffer from a debilitating form of Fibromyalgia and cannot care for him myself. My husband still carries our 85-pound son up and down the stairs and into our truck. We must have staff to help us. This is a not a luxury in our family; it is an absolute necessity. With his medical conditions, my son could die without proper care.

These staff members are funded by Medicaid dollars. We use almost every dollar for staff support to keep Taylor at home and not in an institution. If he were in an institution, which would be hospital level care, the cost to the state would more than triple his current budget.

A Roseville Mother’s Story

My daughter Maren is a delightful, spirited six-year-old who happens to have Down syndrome and sensory integration dysfunction. She likes many things: school, music, books, dance class, gymnastics, swings, slides, and bubbles to name a few. She also is sensitive about certain loud noises and being physically restrained and is not fond of doctors or dentists.

Maren receives services through Medicaid. Before receiving these services in November of 2000, our family was stressed to the limit, and I was being treated for stress-related health problems. For four-and-a-half years, we had been living life and raising our daughter as if running a sprint race instead of a marathon. We were paying the price and falling apart.

Since Maren has been on Medicaid services, our family has had the resources, time and energy to investigate and pursue therapies, services, and equipment that help her to be the best she can be. Today, she is on a roll and developing by leaps and bounds.

A Moorhead Family’s Story

In his first year of life, our son had both open-heart surgery and a kidney transplant. We now qualify for Medicaid under a program that supports families with children who have disabilities and/or high medical needs. This helps us pay for his numerous medical visits and prescriptions since the surgery. Several of his medications are extremely expensive, and not taking them would mean organ rejection. He also receives early intervention services through Medicaid, which coordinate his physical therapy, occupational therapy, and hearing impairment services.