Letter: Medicaid cuts would hurt disabled Americans

OK you want to fix the Affordable Care Act and make it better or come up with a replacement for ACA, OK do so without cutting lifelines that the disabled use to get at equality of opportunity.

Cuts to Medicaid will mean people will have all the negative liberty they want, but if they are disabled, they may not use it at all, it will result in people being put in nursing homes and other settings that are more limiting than where they are now.

I get that many people want a fix closer to their ideals of autonomy and negative liberty. However, cuts to Medicaid and other programs harms the very ideals some people think they are helping with for their fellow citizens, because it harms the autonomy and liberty of disabled Americans. Cuts will cause more harm then good.

Reforms that allow people with disabilities to thrive is what we need to be able to save and make more and modernize the safety net. Cuts are not reforms that will help us.

This story was originally published July 4, 2017 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Letter: Medicaid cuts would hurt disabled Americans."