Medicaid Matters for Kids Mondays - Lizzie

Speak Now for Kids is celebrating Medicaid Matters for Kids Mondays with posts highlighting the importance of Medicaid in children’s access to health care. This week, we revisited 2016 Family Advocacy Day alum, Lizzie.

Lizzie is 7 years old and she loves ballet, singing and playing with her little sister and friends. Resilient and determined Lizzie lives with a number of congenital conditions, including the congenital heart defect, transposition of the great arteries, profound hearing loss and pulmonary stenosis. Lizzie had her first open heart surgery when she was only five-days-old and had cochlear implant surgery at age one.

Today, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital’s Heart Institute takes good care of Lizzie and monitors her cardiac issues. She also sees a speech therapist regularly.

“Without Medicaid there would have been no way we ever could have afforded Lizzie’s surgeries,” states Lizzie’s father. “We still rely on Medicaid to help with Lizzie’s bi-weekly speech therapy and costly echocardiograms which she needs every six months. Medicaid is essential to Lizzie’s care and helps us provide for everything she needs to be successful.”

Lizzie and her family attended Speak Now for Kids Family Advocacy Day in June 2016 in Washington, D.C. to advocate for kids just like her. Lizzie and her family shared their story and spoke to the important role Medicaid plays in children’s health care.