Maureen Malesco of Middletown, New Jersey, utilizes Medicaid to support her daughter, Mairead, who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at 19 months. “At the time, which was 1999, she was the youngest person in New Jersey to have been diagnosed with autism,” Maureen recalled. Mairead has grown into a capable adult who works at a day program for autistic adults, earning a modest income while living with her mother.
Read Maureen’s storyMadison works with a mobile dentistry company that primarily serves people who have Medicaid. She explains that the company began serving senior centers where many residents had Medicaid and needed dentures but were unable to leave the facilities. The work expanded and now also provides services to the YMCA, YWCA, substance abuse recovery centers, and homeless shelters.
Read Madison Busch,’s storyKatherine Twomey, a licensed clinical social worker and lifelong Long Islander, has dedicated her entire career to community mental health. Living in New York’s 1st Congressional District, she works as a psychotherapist at a community mental health clinic where she and her colleagues serve patients with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Nearly all of their patients rely on Medicaid.
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In 2017, Tomeka James Isaac was pregnant with her first and only son, Jace. At 40 years old, she was told early on that she would be at high risk for pre-eclampsia, yet despite this ominous warning, Tomeka’s pregnancy was progressing smoothly. Until, at her 35-week appointment, complications began.
Read Tomeka’s storyKea had a plan. Pregnant with her first child, she knew she wanted a natural birth, and she wanted her birth experience to be an experience that was unique to her. However, she felt dismissed by doctors when she made requests, and ignored at appointments. Kea switched to a birth center, and everything changed for the better.
Read Kea’s storyTamara's 18 month old grandson fell ill with a slight cough and signs mirroring COVID-19, but was not tested by his pediatrician. After his oxygen levels dropped, he was taken to the ER but was still not tested for COVID-19 due to not meeting testing criteria.
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At 61, Delaine Dixon of Texas relies on pain management after multiple spine surgeries, but recent insurance changes and hidden facility fees have made getting care nearly impossible. Living on Social Security, she now faces the impossible choice between paying hundreds in unexpected charges or going without the treatment she needs to manage her pain.
Read Delaine’s storyMay, a young woman from the Midwest, was diagnosed with a life-threatening pulmonary embolism and prescribed costly blood thinners to prevent another clot. Even with good employer-sponsored insurance, she faced staggering out-of-pocket costs—hundreds of dollars a month—for medication she needed to survive.
Read May,’s storyCassenda Nelson lives in Camilla, a rural community in southwest Georgia, where health care is limited and resources are hard to come by. She’s a mother of four, a community health worker, and the full-time caregiver to her daughter Amunet, who lives with type 2 diabetes and experiences seizures.
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