Armond Dai: Navigating Long COVID, Disability Hurdles and Medicaid Cuts

Armond Dai was building a promising career in architecture in Washington, DC when everything changed. After contracting COVID-19 twice, he developed a series of chronic illnesses that left him unable to work and desperate for answers. To this day Long COVID is not widely understood, and without clear lab results, qualifying for disability benefits became a daunting challenge.

Armond now lives with myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome) and an immune deficiency that leaves him vulnerable to frequent infections. “It’s not something you can just push through,” Armond said. “If you push through it, it will actually deteriorate your body further, and I realized I need to survive. I need to live.”

Like many people facing long COVID and other disabling conditions, Armond was forced to leave the life he had built behind. He moved from DC to live with his mother in the Sacramento, California area. “I’m really sad that I won’t be able to continue my career in the same way,” he said, “And if I do, there will have to be accommodations unless I find a way to get better.”

Following his move, Armond enrolled in Covered California, the state’s ACA marketplace, and later transitioned to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. That change provided some relief. His infusion therapy, which is estimated to cost $5,000 a month without coverage, is now accessible. Under his previous plan, he was still paying almost $1,000 in premiums and hundreds more out of pocket each month.

But his relief was short-lived. Just a month into his Medi-Cal coverage, Armond learned about new federal legislation that could make it more difficult to stay enrolled in Medicaid. These proposed administrative burdens (additional paperwork, eligibility check, and reporting requirements) would add stress and uncertainty to a process already complicated for people with chronic illness. “With my previous experience trying to prove that I was sick enough to qualify for short-term and long-term disability, I was like, oh no. There are just more hurdles,” Armond said. “Honestly, I should probably get an emergency plan or some sort of preemptive Go Fund Me.”

He also pushed back on the harmful stereotypes that lawmakers often invoke when discussing Medicaid. “Of course, I want to make money and work. I have a whole degree,” he said. “To attack the character of millions of people just doesn’t even make sense. We’re not lazy. I don’t think anyone is on Medicaid because they’re lazy. Most people just need it.”

Armond and millions like him, particularly those already navigating serious health challenges, are bracing for the impacts of the recently passed Republican health care cuts. He urged elected officials to understand that illness is not a character flaw, and that sick people deserve dignity and support. “Everyone deserves health care no matter what,” Armond said. “The fact that I lost it so easily because it was tied to my employment is a big issue. Please do better. This is unacceptable, and if cruelty is the point, then society is not going to work.”