A medical lifeline: What Healthy PA would mean for workers with disabilities

I have two part-time jobs. I work as a dispatcher for a local police department and as a security guard at a high school.

I also have three illnesses: Type I Diabetes, a digestive and autoimmune disorder called Celiac disease, and an intestinal disorder called microscopic colitis. Because of these disorders, I have to be very careful about what I eat.

Often times, the only foods that I’m able to eat are very expensive. For instance, a loaf of gluten-free bread costs around $5 to $7 and a bag of half a dozen gluten-free dinner rolls costs about $6.79. Companies will charge these prices because they know that you will buy these items because they know that you need them.

I’m currently a student at CCAC studying to become a registered dietetic technician so that I can help others who have these and other illnesses make healthy eating choices.

I am also currently on MAWD (Medical Assistance for Workers with Disability), which allows disabled individuals to earn money without losing health insurance.

Without MAWD, I would have no health insurance. I do not earn enough money to afford COBRA which is about $800 a month, but I make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid.

Without MAWD, my elderly parents, who are on social security, would have to help pay for the pills I need to take (which cost about $1000 a month) as well as my diabetic testing supplies and insulin. This would be quite a hardship for them but at least I have parents who are willing to help me.

If Governor Corbett’s Healthy PA program passes and there is no Medicaid Expansion in Pennsylvania MAWD will be eliminated.

I have a family that can help me but what will happen to those that don’t?

Debra’s story appeared as a letter to the editor in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on April 6, 2014.