Grace Wensley: A First Year Med Student Fighting for Health Care Access

Grace is a first-year medical student in California who currently uses Medicaid to access affordable health care and manage the financial challenges of medical school, where the cost of tuition and living expenses is already high. At 26, she no longer qualifies for coverage under her family’s health insurance, but since enrolling in Medicaid, Grace has been able to schedule appointments and connect with her providers. This access has helped her stay focused on her studies without worrying about unexpected medical costs.

Before starting medical school, Grace worked at a safety-net hospital in pediatric oncology in the Bay Area, where many patients relied on Medicaid. In that role, she saw how important the program is—especially for families facing incredibly difficult diagnoses. “Imagining what their care would look like or how it would be impacted if Medicaid was no longer available is something that’s really scary, not only as just a person, but as a future provider,” she added.

Grace believes that reducing access to Medicaid would lead to fewer opportunities for preventative care and more patients ending up in emergency rooms with advanced conditions that could have been treated earlier. As a future health care provider, she finds this troubling. She wants to be part of a system that supports patients before their health worsens.

“We have all this science and all this knowledge of how we can help people and we’re learning all these things, if we’re not able to reasonably provide these for patients in a way that’s not financially devastating for people…it is disheartening”

For Grace, Medicaid is a practical solution that allows her to stay healthy during medical school and gives her a clearer picture of what access to health care should look like—for herself and for the people she hopes to serve one day.