Is West Virginia — and the rest of the country — prepared to care for our seniors?

I lost my 92 year old mother after a long illness last month.

My mother passed away peacefully in her home at The Havens, an assisted living facility where she resided for a little more than the last five years of her life. I helped her make the transition from her home to The Havens in December of 2019 immediately prior to the public health emergency of COVID that forever changed life in America.

Initially reluctant, my mother was persuaded by the 24-hour access to personalized care services. Prior to the move, she began experiencing episodes of uncontrollable blood pressure spikes that landed her repeatedly in the emergency room in the middle of the night. She lived alone and was scared and vulnerable. The on-site personalized care my mother received at The Havens unequivocally extended her life, as well as its quality. The nursing staff were able to monitor and control her blood pressure, eliminating visits to the ER.

Thanks to the living situation and options available to her, she was able to share more time with me and her granddaughter.

Unfortunately, the majority of West Virginians cannot afford access to such care. My mother had the foresight — and resources — to purchase long-term care insurance over 20 years ago. She watched the health crises of her mother and siblings and did not want to experience the same fate.

Today, 76% of nursing homes residents in West Virginia are covered by Medicaid: That’s over 49,000 residents in just one state. Medicare beneficiaries rely on Medicaid for assistance with services not covered by Medicare, particularly long term care.

There is an unprecedented and unnecessary attack on one of the largest health insurance programs in the country. The GOP has plans to rip Medicaid from our seniors — and every other person assisted by Medicaid — in the current budget process. Under the current proposal, West Virginia stands to lose over a half a billion federal dollars. And we all saw a few weeks ago how eager West Virginia Republicans are to throw tens of thousands of their constituents under the bus if Congress cuts the program. They didn’t even wait for their Congressional delegation. They preempted them by attempting to sneak in a Medicaid trigger bill signaling the message: Hey, it’s OK, we don’t care if you gut Medicaid. We are ready and willing.

The only thing that stopped them was you and all of us. You responded. We showed up. We all said no. And it was not with a whisper but with one concerted voice: Hands off our health care.

Life according to the GOP is they have theirs — we are on our own to figure out how to pay for health care, irrespective of our age, vulnerabilities or circumstances.

Do you have a mother or father or grandparent who may soon need assisted living or skilled nursing? The average cost of assisted living in West Virginia is $5,500 per month. The average cost of a semi-private room in a West Virginia skilled nursing facility is $11,619 per month.

Medicaid helps pay for many of these costs. Medicaid provides health care for over 70 million Americans, including 7.2 million seniors. It provides essential coverage for expenses like long-term care, medical equipment, hospitalization, and prescription drugs. As the single largest payer to long-term care services in the country, middle-class families depend on Medicaid to help take care of their loved ones. Six in 10 nursing home residents count on Medicaid for the long-term care they need — that’s 5.6 million older Americans.

West Virginians for Affordable Health Care urges lawmakers to look out for the best interests of their fellow West Virginia residents. We urge you to protect our health care and reject yet another tax cut that only benefits billionaires.