Moolah Monday - Medicaid & Foster Care

Last week I spent 5 days in the hospital.  It was a great hospital designed for children.  In other words, I spent the nights in the hospital with child.  A very small child I tend to call Baby Baby.

(I almost broke down to cry when I typed that...I'm great in emergencies but afterward the spigot flows!)

It was hard.  It was very, very hard.  Hubby had to take 4 nights off work because someone had to stay with the other kids while I stayed in the hospital with the wee one.  I had to take 2 days off work (because somehow I thought it was a good idea to go into work after the first night in the hospital...).  I missed my kids' baseball games.  I got nearly no sleep.  Hubby did a great job but was tasked with taking care of the entire home-field all by himself.  A few friends jumped in to help with the kiddos and one with a meal, but it was hard.  Very, very hard.

Of course, not to go without mention, it was extremely hard to see Baby Baby like that.  Tubes and wires and miserableness.  Too hard.

Even though it was a major challenge on our family, now that he's ok I started to think how blessed we are.  Not only is everyone home and ok now though we had to worry about everything else we did not have to worry about finances.  At one point I thought - man - some people in here are thinking about copayments and coinsurance and no insurance.

I didn't once have to think about paying for the medical bill.

Foster children receive some form of government provided health care and while I'm generally not supportive of across the board "entitlements" as some people refer to them, medicaid (or some kind of medical care) for foster children is an extremely beneficial and necessary component.  We would not be able to foster (certainly not 20 kids so far!) if we had to worry about how to pay for their medical care in case of an emergency like this, especially given the history our kids face that tend to lead them to poorer health or required therapies or delayed preventative care.

Tomorrow I will write more about the tears I face today but I wanted to take the minute to raise awareness of foster care medicaid programs.  Look into them.  Support them.  Make sure your local providers accept medicaid designed for foster children even if they aren't willing to take medicaid for all (I don't blame them).  Advocate for these children who otherwise really have no other options.  I can't imagine what the bill is for the state for Baby Baby's healthcare but I'm so grateful to the citizens of Texas for stepping up and caring for him and others like him in his (many) hour(s) of need.