Cutting Medicaid should not be an option

With the looming debt crisis, G.O.P. debates and the commencement of election season, we've been hearing a lot about cutting taxes and slashing so-called entitlement programs like Medicaid. I wonder: When this rhetoric gets thrown around, do people ever connect an actual human being to the programs they'd like to see cut?

It's true that these programs are abused, but it's also true that these programs really help people with nowhere else to turn.

Joe is a gentleman I used to know. He gets up for work at 6 a.m., Monday through Friday.

He spends most of his day at work doing menial tasks for little money, but it's something he can be proud of. He returns home at night and has dinner with his nine roommates, all of whom spend the day in a similar fashion.

After dinner, Joe may go shopping, to a movie or bowling. He picks his activities, based on his interests. Joe's only family is his sister, whom he sees on weekends. Living with nine people can be frustrating, but Joe enjoys where he lives.

I should mention that Joe is developmentally disabled and mentally ill. While his life may not sound exciting by the standards of a young college student, to him it's OK. It beats living in the horribly-run state institution he grew up in, that's for sure. He's surrounded by caring staff members who help him live his life on his own terms.

Joe is able to a life with meaning because of the programs we provide as a society. Without Medicaid, Joe and individuals like him would live on the street, completely unable to care for themselves.

It wasn't so long ago that this was the case for people like Joe. Many people with disabilities lived in dilapidated state hospitals, 50 to a room with one caretaker. Worse still were the ones who never made it to the institution, and lived life on the street, eking out a meager existence while trying to survive with just the basic instinctual knowledge.

My example may be extreme, but to say it couldn't happen is to disregard recent history.

Yes, certain parts of Medicaid are broken and need to be fixed. We should be very careful, however, when we speak of broadly cutting programs that are deemed too expensive. It's worth remembering that there are very human faces behind the statistics used to justify cuts to these programs. These people are our brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins and family friends. It's important that we stand by them. I, for one, will.

Michael Canfield can be reached by email at Canfield.Record@live.com.