Taya Hailstone has been in remission from childhood Hodgkin lymphoma for five years, but the cancer’s lasting damage to her organs and nerves can make basic tasks, like loading a dishwasher, difficult. Despite this, Montana’s health department decided last year that Hailstone is no longer eligible for low-cost disability health coverage through Medicaid. The department switched her coverage to the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, another Medicaid program, three months before she aged out. Before making the decision, the state did not seek records from Hailstone’s treating medical team, according to letters from her doctors reviewed by KFF Health News. Instead, the administrative ruling came after state officials learned the now-19-year-old had stopped receiving Social Security disability payments. She explained she did that because she hoped to get healthy enough to work and save money beyond the strict income caps tied to those payments, though her daily health fluctuations still leave her too sick to work consistently. Hailstone, who lives with her mother, has maintained Medicaid coverage while appealing the case, noting that without it she cannot afford treatment for her cancer’s lingering effects. Advocacy experts warn that complex disability cases like Hailstone’s signal that states are unprepared to handle medical exemptions for new federal Medicaid work requirements, which could lead to millions losing coverage.
Source: npr.org
