1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I wanted to share about the dangers of Trump’s budget bill and what it can do to many children. Some children are born with severe birth defects. My niece, Colleen, was born with a severe case of cerebral palsy. Colleen was not able to do a lot of things like crawling, walking, talking or in the later half of her life even eating with her mouth. Colleen got sick very easily and was in and out of the hospital her entire life. She once spent 6 months in the hospital. My sister and brother in law were very lucky that they both had good paying jobs so they could afford her medical bills. Right around when she turned 10 things took a turn and Colleen needed a trach which is a tube that was inserted in her throat in order to help her breathe. She had the trach for the rest of her life and had to be put on a ventilator many times. Luckily when she turned ten, she qualified for the Katie Beckett waiver. This was huge deal for our family. The cost of her medical condition was sky rocketing and she now required 24 hour care by a nurse to make sure she was breathing. Without this federal program, my parents would not have been able to afford nursing care or even their groceries. This waiver helps children who are medically fragile get the care they need in order to live. This helped with doctor visits, equipment, nursing care and hospital care which run into the millions of dollars. This waiver made it possible for my parents to actually continue working in order to provid for our family. Colleen was never going to be able to work or pay for these things herself, so we were and are still thankful she qualified for this waiver. This waiver is at risk of losing significant funding if this bill passes. The bill wants to cut many areas of Medicaid and this waiver is a part of that. If you do not believe me, please feel free to look it up. We only got 19 years with Colleen and for that we were grateful. I can only hope and pray this doesn’t go into play for any family with a medically fragile child. Please vote against this bill and stand up for children like Colleen.