Taxation with representation

(3/2024) It happened at rehab. A daughter-in-law checking on our mutual mother-in-law at the rehab facility found, to everyone’s astonishment, that Medicaid had been cancelled for our beloved ninety-two year old matriarch. This past year the Medicaid system required recipients of Medicaid to reapply for their benefits. Our social safety net expanded during the pandemic to provide resources to people struggling with little or no income, while we as a society figured out how to move forward. Forward came. Government assistance needed to reduce back to more or less normal amounts. The misstep was how to get the word out. The answer was to have everyone reapply for Medicaid.

Would you expect a ninety-two year old person with spotty cell phone service, no affordable hi-speed internet service, little or no understanding of the internet and no computer, to be able to renew a vital government service online? Like it or not, the internet is how many mandatory tasks are completed. Hi-speed internet is a necessity, not a luxury.

This happened to my mother-in-law, Marge. Ninety-two years young, she didn’t have a lazy day in her life, never ran up a debt, credit card or otherwise. She and her first husband built their own house when they were nineteen and twenty. Not with contractors, with a hammer and saw. As you might expect, there were a few rough spots and maintenance snafus over the years. But at seventy three the house still stands.

After her husband died at the age of forty-two, Marge raised their five children. She earned a modest income through her working life. Because the house was long paid for, with no debts, she comfortably lived a long and interesting life. There was never much in savings, or other financial resources. After retiring, she lived on Social Security, with a monthly income of $1400.00 at the time of her death.

Marge didn’t slow down. She found time for every family member, and activities in her community. When she wasn’t working, her time was spent on church activities, community events like working at the annual Bloomsburg Fair as a docent in the garden building, or hitching a ride with any friend or family member taking a trip. We took her with us to Australia when she was in her eighties. It is quite impossible to write about Marge without using run-on sentences for their secret purpose—capturing a life story that flowed with grace from one friend and event to another.

The decision to require reapplying for Medicaid was a follow up to the funds sent through the Medicaid system during Covid. The Federal government stepping in to stabilize our economy and help many Americans ride out a storm of unknowns is what our country is good at. Reverting the system back to its original purpose with the burden of everyone reapplying was a bad idea. Does anyone really think that the finances of a ninety-two year old got better during the COVID years?

As luck would have it Marge died before the cost of end of life care went over the value of her modest house in the Pennsylvania hills.

Marge lived in Bloomsburg, PA all of her life. Bloomsburg is north of Harrisburg, along the Susquehanna River, a good bit farther from Frederick County Maryland than just over the state line. While state laws differ, and state uses of Federal funds differ, the day to day landscape for Pennsylvanian and Marylander Americans is pretty similar. Generations of church going folk living side by side with people—their children—with changing, modern perspectives.

This is not good or bad, just a way of organizing our lifetime of energy. That is, until we start debating how to help those in need. There’s a thing we do in church sometimes. The minister asks us to turn to our neighbor in the seat next to us, greet them and have a moment of connection. Connection we often miss, living in the whirlwind of daily responsibilities. If we can take a moment in our actual daily life to connect with someone and see their situation, we might start to see what we really need to ask of our leaders.

Any study of the history of European and in turn North American society shows an emphasis on personal responsibility as a cultural norm. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, take it on the chin, fend for yourself, are ways of saying "don’t take handouts." Caring for yourself and your family is a source of pride for many of us. Then life happens and we can’t be everything to everyone all of the time. Right now, there are many gaps in the work force for caregiving and other support for at-risk people. There are people living within their means on only the government support they are receiving. This part of the population is almost by definition living on thin ice, but making it work. It is a failing of our system that anyone should lose their life sustaining support over a bureaucratic detail.

Our leaders shouldn't be slamming the doors of accessibility in our faces simply in service to a claim of saving money. Some doors left open don't cost a thing. We need leaders who can identify actual problems and find solutions that benefit the most people.

State Representative Lesley Lopez, running for Maryland’s 6th District, and our current District 6 Representative David Trone, running for Senate in Maryland, are two candidates who have a record of legislation that meets the needs of constituents. In Rep. Trone’s tenure he has cosponsored bi-partisan bills such as H.R. 4334 - Supporting Older Americans Act of 2020. This supports social services and activities for individuals aged 60 years and older, with additional focus on social isolation.

We the People sometimes need support. Choose wisely the Representatives who can and will respond to those needs.

2024 is the the year of the vote. Please make yours count.