My son, Griffin was born with a rare, genetic condition called Lebers Congenital Amaurosis (LCA). This is a form of retinal dystrophy that has rendered Griffin blind since birth. I am an occupational therapist so I understand the importance of and believe in therapy intervention! Griffin has a global delay, but thanks to his receiving therapies at such an early age… he won’t be behind for long!! Griffin is learning to use his walker as a pre-cursor skill to using his long white cane. He is learning to use his hands to manipulate and study objects which will be a life long skill when he starts reading Braille, and becoming more independent. And at 13 months, he is just learning to babble and say “Ba, Ba”.
We GLADLY pay our TEFRA premium each month and say a prayer of thankfulness for it each day. Without TEFRA, Griffin would not receive his therapies, have been able to have had his genetic testing done to help us learn what was the cause of his blindness, or be able to have had the 7 eye exams he needed before age one!
This my 15 month old son, Elliot, who is sitting up and holding a ball…two things he would likely not be doing without the physical and occupational therapy he receives twice a week. He was born 3 months prematurely and suffered grade III and IV brain bleeds, damage associated with motor impairments and, very often, cerebral palsy. He also developed hydrocephalus from the bleeds, has a shunt, an
Dear Distinguished Representatives,
Hello, my name is Jackie Palmer and I am writing this so that my son Adam Devosha can have a voice on this issue. It is very dear and important to us. My son is 5 years old now with E.O.E and autism. This little boy has come such a long way and it’s all due to the therapy that he was able to receive through Medicaid. When Adam was a year and a half old, we had to teach him sign language in order to communicate with us because he couldn’t speak. He had so many issues from E.O.E where he needed eating therapy all the way to physical therapy and speech therapy because he couldn’t dress himself, hold a pencil, or talk. Thank goodness we were able to get all the therapies he needed not only in the Francis Allen school, but he was able to receive these therapies at home when he was very young. These therapies changed my son’s life in such an amazing way. He is now able to speak so well you can’t even tell that he needed the therapy, we also almost have him off his feeding tube now due to the eating therapy that he is still receiving. These therapies are getting my son to be able to bring him to the full and healthy potential that he needs to have a full, happy, and healthy life because without the therapies that he received there is no telling where my son would be today. We pray that in the future children like my son Adam will have the same opportunity in life to reach their full potential through these therapies, so please do not cut therapies for Medicaid it would truly cause damaging and irreversible effects to these children throughout their lives and we want the best for all children like my son Adam. Thank you and God bless.
Hi! This is Cash. We live in Alma! He was given a postnatal diagnosis for Down syndrome where we also found out he has transient leukemia. Though he is overall very healthy and has not developed full blown leukemia, we do frequent testing with both oncology and hematology. He receives 90 mins/wk of PT, OT, and Speech. We would not be able afford these therapies without secondary coverage from TEFRA.
Our daughter was born at 37 1/2 weeks with the cord around her neck. She was diagnosed with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy which is lack of oxygen to the brain. Her MRI at 5 days old showed severe global brain damage. We were told she may never walk, talk or eat. Over the past 4 years she has also been diagnosed with Microcephaly (a babies head is significantly smaller due to abnormal brain devel
Medicaid Saves Lives 