For Immediate Release: June 12th, 2023
Contact:
Barbara White | bawhite2012@gmail.com | 412-381-6886
Put People First! PA | putpeoplefirstpa.org
PITTSBURGH SENIOR GARY RUSH COULD LOSE HIS MEDICAID COVERAGE – THOUSANDS OF PITTSBURGH RESIDENTS FACE SIMILAR FATE
Who: Pittsburgh residents, Southwest Pennsylvania Healthcare Rights Committee of Put People First! PA, members of the Nonviolent Medicaid Army
What: Support Rally outside Gateway 2, location of the Department of Human Services Bureau of Hearings and Appeals
Photo/Video Opportunities: Public demonstration, signs, testimony from affected residents
When: Thursday, June 15th, 12:30PM
Where: Gateway 2, Corner of Penn and Stanwix
Pittsburgh residents and members of Put People First! PA will gather outside Gateway 2 on Thursday, where the Department of Human Services Bureau of Hearings and Appeals regional office is located, to call attention to the injustice faced by senior Gary Rush and the thousands of other Pittsburgh residents who are losing their Medicaid and their healthcare. As the bipartisan decision by Congress in December 2022 to end the continuous coverage requirement for Medicaid take effect, we demand that the Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Hearing and Appeals grant Mr. Rush’s appeal and maintain his Medicaid enrollment.
Mr. Rush qualified for Medicaid after becoming disabled, and is receiving treatment for his diabetes, chronic back pain, and kidney disease. Being insured allowed him to do something that many seniors aspire to – he put away a little money for retirement.
But thanks to the draconian rules reimposed by the end of the continuous coverage requirement for Medicaid, which are on track to revoke benefits from over 1 million poor and working-class Pennsylvania residents, Gary Rush has, like many Pennsylvanians, received notice that he no longer qualifies for the healthcare he relies on to survive.
Medicaid, like other public benefits, is a harsh system where you regularly have to prove you deserve assistance by staying under income limits. If you make $1 over the limit, you are thrown off the rolls and you lose your healthcare. For some, these limits also extend to your retirement savings – effectively prohibiting any senior on Medicaid from putting aside money for medical treatment or end of life care.
Without his Medicaid and prescription coverage, Gary would be forced to spend the majority of his monthly Social Security income on his healthcare. Gary’s medications, for example, total anywhere from $700-$800/month without insurance. On top of that, without Medicaid, he would have to start paying out of pocket costs for his primary care visits, specialist visits, lab work, and more.
“I don’t know how I am going to pay for everything if I don’t have Medicaid”, said Gary Rush. “I am on a fixed income which meets my living expenses, but without the Medicaid I might have to stop some of my care or start eating into my savings or retirement accounts to stay healthy. I have doctors and specialists that I see and without Medicaid, I don’t even know how much that would cost.”
It is for this reason that a group of Pittsburgh residents, led by the Southwest Pennsylvania Healthcare Rights Committee of Put People First! PA, will gather near Gateway 2, outside the Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Hearing and Appeals, to advocate for Mr. Rush’s fair treatment, and to insist that his Medicaid coverage be maintained.
Responding to the situation in which Mr. Rush and many other PA residents find themselves, Put People First! PA is demanding that no one lose their healthcare; that PA should instead invest some of the $8 billion dollar budget surplus to expand Medicaid to cover all PA residents, fully restore the Medicaid Adult Dental Benefit that was cut in 2011, and that the legislature should pass a bill to establish an office of the Public Healthcare Advocate [1] for Pennsylvania to provide support for residents like Mr. Rush fighting for their healthcare rights.
For more information on the Public Healthcare Advocate (2021-2022 House Session HB1828), see the policy report released by Put People First! PA in August 2021. https://www.putpeoplefirstpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Final-PHA-report.pdf
- Actions, Medicaid, Medicaid Cut Offs Organizing Drive, Nonviolent Medicaid Army, Public Healthcare Advocate, Southwest PA