This page explains what Medicaid is, why Medicaid is important for people with disabilities, how Medicaid is under attack, and what you can do to help protect Medicaid.
What is Medicaid?
Medicaid (called “Medi-Cal” in California) is a public health insurance program. Almost 80 million people in the United States use Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to pay for their health care. This includes 17 million people with disabilities and older adults and 6 million children with disabilities. Every state has Medicaid. The federal government and the states pay for Medicaid.
Why is Medicaid Important for People with Disabilities?
Medicaid pays for services and supports that are essential to people with disabilities. Medicaid covers doctors’ appointments, medicine, wheelchairs, walkers, treatments, tests, and surgeries. It pays for personal care attendants that help people eat, get dressed, and go to work. It funds supported employment and supported housing.
Medicaid helps adults with disabilities to live in their own homes and communities instead of with their parents or in hospitals and nursing homes. Medicaid can also allow children with disabilities to live with their families instead of in an institution. It pays for 70% of personal care services – also called home and community based services (HCBS) – which are largely not covered by Medicare or private insurance. These services help people with disabilities live and work in their communities. More than 1 in 3 working adults with disabilities use Medicaid to meet their care needs. In addition, Medicaid HCBS is extremely popular. There are more than 9,000 people in California and 700,000 people nationwide on HCBS waiting lists.
How Do I Know If I Have Medicaid?
Medicaid goes by different names in different states. You can learn if your health insurance program is a Medicaid program by checking this list. You can also enter the name of your state in this tool to get the name Medicaid has in your state. Some people use Medicaid by itself. Other people use Medicaid with other insurance. For example, if you have a “waiver,” or use Children’s Special Needs Services, or if you are a dual-eligible individual, your health insurance includes Medicaid programs. Read more by selecting the types.
If you’re still not sure if you have Medicaid, you can contact your state Medicaid office and ask if you are covered by Medicaid. The office will ask you to tell them some personal information. Then, the Medicaid office will tell you whether you are currently covered by Medicaid, or if you are able to sign up for health care services under Medicaid.
Health Plans
Some people who use Medicaid can go to any doctor that accepts Medicaid insurance. Other people get Medicaid through state health plans. Even though it may seem like you’re only getting services directly through the health plan, you are still enrolled in a Medicaid program.
Waivers
Some people with high health care needs may qualify for a “waiver.” Waivers can pay for more hours of personal care assistance or additional community services.
Children with Disabilities
Some disabled children with high health care needs may qualify for Medicaid or CHIP even though their family income is above the level that Medicaid usually requires.
Some working parents may have private health insurance that covers their child with disabilities. Sometimes, these families still have Medicaid as back-up that pays for things that private insurance won’t pay for.
Medicare plus Medicaid
Some people who are low-income can get health insurance coverage through both Medicare and Medicaid. This is called being “dually eligible.” Dually eligible people have Medicare coverage as their main insurance, and Medicaid covers additional things. Medicaid might cover Medicare payments and co-payments. Medicaid may also cover other necessary services like personal care attendants, or devices like wheelchairs that Medicare won’t cover.
Family Caregivers
In some states, Medicaid can pay your family member to provide your personal home care. In these situations, losing Medicaid means less money for the family, and less care attendants to support family members who provide care. It may also mean less therapies for disabled students at school.
Medicaid is Under Attack
Elected officials in Washington, D.C., are talking about cutting Medicaid. A Medicaid cut is a decrease in the amount of money that goes to Medicaid programs. Elected officials are people that United States citizens vote for to represent them in the government. Elected officials include the President of the United States, Senators, and House Representatives.
Some elected officials want to cut Medicaid because they think it is not important. They want to use Medicaid money for other things that will not help most disabled people. These elected officials will try to do this by changing the United States budget to give less money to Medicaid. This is happening very soon.
Cuts to Medicaid go by lots of names. Some of the names are “work requirements,” “block grants,” “per capita caps,” and “Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) changes.” The exact meaning of these words does not matter. They are funding cuts to Medicaid programs. The cuts will hurt people with disabilities, older adults, kids, and other low-income people.
Many officials are proposing what they call a ‘work requirement’ to be eligible for Medicaid. Anyone applying for Medicaid would need to work, volunteer, or engage in educational activities for a minimum number of hours. This is still a cut to Medicaid. Work requirements would make it harder for many people with disabilities and their caregivers to access Medicaid. People will lose their access to Medicaid. Work requirements cost states a great deal of money to run, money that should be spent on providing services, supports, and healthcare.
If the federal government stops giving the states money to pay for these services, the states can stop providing home care services altogether. Then, many people with disabilities and older adults would lose their home care. Many would be forced to live in hospitals or nursing homes and segregated from their communities. Medicaid cuts will lead to long wait times for doctors appointments and less doctors. Some people will not be able to get the health care they need.
What You Can Do to Help & How to Contact Your Elected Officials
Contact your members of Congress. Use the script below or this script to talk to Congressional offices on the phone. To send a letter automatically to all of your representatives at once, use this letter-sending tool. Add some personal information into the message text if you would like.
Tell your elected officials “Hands Off Our Medicaid!”
- Use this search tool to find out who your elected officials are.
- Fill in your address.
- Select “Federal Officials.”
- Select each of the names listed.
- The contact information for your representatives will appear.
- Call the phone number listed, and use the sample call script.
Send Your Own Letter
Go to the representative’s website that is listed in the search tool. Select “Contact.” Either send the letter to the email address listed or fill out the contact form. Then, copy and paste your letter into the “Message” field.
Sample Call Script
My name is [your name] I live in [your city, your state]. My address is [your address].
I am a person with a disability. [Say more about your disability].
I care about Medicaid. Medicaid helps people with disabilities live independently in their communities. Medicaid helps keep people with disabilities out of nursing homes and institutions.
17 million people with disabilities and older adults use Medicaid to pay for their health care. Over 6 million kids with disabilities have Medicaid as their health insurance. Medicaid pays for 70% of long term health services–most of these services are not covered by Medicare or private insurance. I urge you to do everything in your power to protect Medicaid. Cuts to Medicaid of any kind–through FMAP changes, work requirements, block grants, or per capita caps–are unacceptable. Do not vote to cut Medicaid in any way!
Thank you.
Example Letter
How to use this letter:
- Delete the italicized text and fill in your own personal information
- Leave the normal text can be left in the letter.
- Fill in or delete the bracketed and bolded text before sending the letter.
Dear [Senator or Representative Name],
[Say who you are] My name is [your name]. I live in Mission Viejo, California, and I have a disability. I am hard of hearing and use a wheelchair. I work part-time for the Dayle McIntosh Independent Living Center in Orange. I go to college part time at Saddleback City College.
[Say why you support Medicaid – give personal examples] I care deeply about Medicaid. Almost 80 million people in the United States use Medicaid to pay for their health care. This includes 17 million people with disabilities and older adults. Over 6 million kids with disabilities have Medicaid as their health insurance. Medicaid helps people with significant disabilities live on their own instead of with their parents or in hospitals and nursing homes. It pays for 70% of long term health services–most of these services are not covered by Medicare or private insurance. These long term services help people with disabilities live and work in their communities. More than 1 in 3 working adults with disabilities use Medicaid to meet their care needs.
Medicaid helps me live on my own, go to work, and go to school. Medicaid pays for my attendants that help me eat, get dressed, and get ready for my day. Medicaid pays for my wheelchair that helps me go out into my community to live and work. Medicaid is the reason I can live on my own, and my independence is very important to me.
[Say why cuts to Medicaid are bad] Cuts to Medicaid by any means – FMAP changes, per capita caps, or block grants–are unacceptable. Work requirements are also a cut and are unacceptable–they make it harder for many people with disabilities and their caregivers to access Medicaid. People will lose their access to Medicaid. I am very upset and angry that House and Senate Republicans are considering cutting Medicaid through the budget reconciliation process. That will hurt millions of people with disabilities, older adults, and poor kids (including kids with disabilities). It will force people with disabilities and older adults to live in nursing homes or institutions. This is segregation. I urge you not to allow our country to go back to forcing people with disabilities to live in institutions. That is a shameful part of our history in the United States, and we should not go back in time.
[Say how cuts to Medicaid would hurt people with disabilities] I want you to do everything in your power to prevent cuts to Medicaid in any form.
If Medicaid is cut, I would have to live with my parents, but they don’t have the capacity to care for me 24/7. They would need to work less to help me. Or I might be forced to live in a nursing home away from my community. I would not be able to work or go to my classes. I would not be able to pay taxes.
[If you want, ask for a meeting] I want you to meet with me and other people with disabilities. We want to talk to you about why Medicaid is important to us and why you should make sure there are no cuts to Medicaid in any form.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Additional Resources
Share Your Story
- Faces of Medicaid: Share Your Story | National Disability Rights Network
- Zoom Sessions on Telling Your Medicaid Story | California State Council on Developmental Disabilities
Self Advocacy Resources
- Submit Letters to Congress to Protect Medicaid | Caring Across Generations
- A Self-Advocate’s Guide to Medicaid | Autistic Self Advocacy Network
- Sign up for visits on the Hill: Legislative Visit Interest Form
Resources to Learn More About Medicaid
- 10 Things to Know About Medicaid Fact Sheet | Caring Across Generations
- What the Medicaid Cuts Really Mean | The Century Foundation
- Medicaid Data by Congressional District | Association for Community Affiliated Plans
- Medicaid State Factsheets | Kaiser Family Foundation
- 2025 Letter on Disability and Medicaid | Consortium of Constituents with Disabilities
- Factsheet: Medicaid Block Grants and Per Capita Caps Jeopardize State Budgets, Health Care Access, and Public Health | Center for American Progress
- Setting the Record Straight on the Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment Rules | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- Understanding the Intersection Between Medicaid and Work | Kaiser Family Foundation
- Medicaid Work Requirements Could Put 36 Million People at Risk of Losing Coverage | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- Medicaid HCBS Waiting List Data by State | Kaiser Family Foundation
- Top 10 Reasons Why Work Requirements Should Not Be Added to Medicaid | National Health Law Program