“I've been a mom of a special needs person with a complicated medical history for 25 years. But I still lean on the people that are the experts in their fields to help us with the services my child needs to be his best self. That couldn’t happen without Medicaid.”
My name is Marie Adams. I am a mother of four children, two of whom have special needs and are helped by Medicaid. I've been an ER nurse for 26 years.
25 years ago, my first child, Samuel, was born with a lot of medical needs. We weren't prepared for everything that we would have to go through emotionally and financially just be able to take care of him. Samuel spent the first 4 months of his life in the hospital. He was born with a non-functioning liver. At 8 weeks old, he made medical history by being the youngest ever to have survived a liver transplant.
After his transplant, Samuel was approved for Katie Beckett, a Medicaid-funded program here in Rhode Island. Because of that we were able to get help to pay for his liver transplant medications and treatments. The liver rejection meds alone are thousands of dollars a month, and that’s just for co-pays. We just wouldn't be able to afford them. Without Medicaid, Samuel wouldn't be here.
Samuel has an intellectual disability too. Katie Beckett meant he got early intervention services as a very young child that helped him achieve his early childhood goals. As he got older, he got therapeutic services and supports that have helped him be the best version of himself.
Today, Samuel is 25 and lives in a residential setting and is thriving. He comes home twice a week, and whenever we can, we drop in on him just to bring him a drink or to have lunch with him, sometimes take him out. But he lives with four gentlemen, all around his age, and they go out together to do things in the community.
As a mom with four kids to raise, just getting by can be hard. My youngest, Philip, is still in high school and he also has special needs, though he’s more independent than Samuel. Having Samuel living residentially means he gets the care and one-on-one assistance he needs, and means that I can still work and provide for the other kids. We couldn’t do that without help from Medicaid.