One woman's struggle with Indiana Medicaid

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Melissa Kedik rents a house in South Bend. She's 54 and wheelchair bound.

"I have a bone disease that I've been working half of my life with a lot of disability in my neck and back to begin with," she said. "I knew if I ever were to fall, I was going to be in big trouble. And I was."

That fall came about a year ago. She fell and broke her neck, eventually going into surgery, where she lost movement in her legs, putting her in the chair.

She can't work anymore but eventually got some SSI and disability assistance.

"By the time I do my rent and utilities, I have $320 left over for the month," she said. "Some months you don't have a lot but other months you have $300. But if you take away my insurance, that’ll be gone in seconds."

Still, her disability payments are too much for her to qualify for Medicaid. By how much? $74.

"Once the [disability] payments started, that's when FSSA sent me the letter and said, 'you're over the income, we're pulling your insurance,'" Kedik said.

Kedik appealed and was denied. She showed ABC57 a letter that tells her she's losing her insurance at the end of the month.

"If you are one dollar over, unless you have a Medicaid waiver, you don't qualify for Medicaid and you can't get assistance," said Jennifer VanderVeen of VanderVeen Elder and Special Needs Law.

Kedik is now trying to get a Medicaid waiver, but that request has been left pending for months.

"Right now, there is a waitlist, it's about a year wait to get a waiver," Vanderveen said.

Kedik feels lost, not sure where to turn.

"I'm going to lose my cats. I don't have a job to go to, so I don't have a life anymore, so my cats are my life," she said. "I'm going to lose my house, eventually, because I don't know what's going to happen. At this point, I'm choosing the house over the insurance. So, I'm not going to get insurance and I'm not going to be able to go to the doctor's because I have to have a house."

How common are stories like Melissa Kedik's?

"There are a lot of people in this nation that fall through the gaps," VanderVeen said. "The system right now is so restrictive that there are a lot of people in this state that can't get health insurance."

We're telling melissa’s story at a time when Medicaid is on the chopping block in the Hoosier state. After all, Medicaid costs rose $5 billion over the past four years.

"Recent Medicaid issues have meant that the state is looking to cut Medicaid services wherever they can and however they can," VanderVeen said.      

For Kedik, she feels stuck, but knows she's probably not alone.

"It's frustrating and I just wanted someone to hear. Because if I'm going through it, I know someone else is going through it," she said.

On a national scale, the latest continuing budget resolution passed by congress calls for sweeping cuts to Medicaid. The program is funded partly by the state and partly from the federal government, so it could cause another big blow to Indiana Medicaid overall.