Opinion: I'm disabled. I'm terrified about what Medicaid cuts could mean for my life

In early January, I received a letter in the mail from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The letter informed me that I had been approved for Medicaid-funded Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), a form of long-term care. It had been five months since I’d applied to the program, after being discharged from the hospital in August 2024 as a new full-time wheelchair user.

Receiving HCBS meant, among other things, I now had care workers who could help physically lift me and my wheelchair up the 20 stairs to my inaccessible apartment, so that I would be able to occasionally leave my home. It also meant I no longer had to worry about how I would get food, shower safely, or take care of the trash piling up by my front door.

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