How Republican politicians feel about state and federal social programs makes me nervous. At 74, my mind is still good, even if my body isn’t. That now ancient disease, poliomyelitis, took me down at age 10. Medicaid Home Care keeps me out of the ventilator-patient nursing home. My caregiver, who is my life long partner, is well trained by RNs to do selected procedures at home. I wake up to her each morning. There are no sounds of demented patients crying out, and the food is excellent. I look out the window of our modest home to flowers and people walking well-trained dogs, instead of an institutional parking lot.
Washington has one of the best Medicaid home care programs. I fear for the program’s sustainability if we were to get a Republican governor such as Attorney General Rob McKenna. I try to think as a person in the community paying taxes and taking an interest in my neighborhood, not a nursing home patient.
Jerry Daniel
Vancouver
