I recently collaborated on a Reel with Caring Across Generations for their Medicaid Minute series to talk about—yes, you guessed it—the proposed cuts to Medicaid, a critical issue impacting caregivers and families across the country.
Medicaid is a lifeline for caregivers and their loved ones, and any reduction in funding would have devastating consequences. Caring Across Generations, a national organization working to transform the way we care in this country, has been leading the charge on this issue—organizing vigils, providing advocates with action toolkits, partnering with other organizations to amplify the message, and calling on all of us to contact our representatives and demand they protect Medicaid.
As a 2024 Care Fellow, I was honored to lend my voice to this campaign and share why Medicaid is so personal to me—and to caregivers across the country. If you’ve been following my journey, you know that in 2022 I used Medicaid to fund my grandmother’s long-term care. Even then, I had to spend down all of her financial resources before she could qualify for the program.
But what if Medicaid hadn’t been an option? Would my grandmother have been denied care or discharged from a nursing home? Sadly, those are real possibilities for families across the country. There is already too little dignity in aging, and slashing Medicaid would only worsen our national caregiving crisis. These cuts would limit access to home care for seniors, strip caregivers of their own health coverage, and leave families with no way to bridge the growing gap between care needs and support systems.
In my video, I hoped to offer a small glimpse into what caregivers experience every day. Programs like Medicaid are not just budget line items—they’re about survival. The survival of the caregiver, the care recipient, and the fragile ecosystem that connects them both.
I urge everyone to stay informed and look past the political buzzwords that often dominate the headlines. At some point, each of us will either become a caregiver or need care ourselves. No one should ever have to choose between supporting a loved one and protecting their own well-being.
In a country that spends more on healthcare than any other—both per capita and as a share of GDP—it’s inexcusable that we place so little value on caregivers and the unpaid labor they provide. Care work is the backbone of our society, and yet, it remains undervalued and underfunded. Protecting Medicaid isn’t just a policy issue—it’s a moral one. If we want to build a future where aging with dignity is possible and caregiving is sustainable, we must speak up now.
Watch and share my video with Caring Across Generations, contact your elected officials, and use your voice to demand that Medicaid be protected—not gutted. Because when we protect care, we protect all of us.
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