By Aimee Castenell | On July 30, Medicare and Medicaid turned 60. The anniversary probably won’t receive much celebration, not even a decent sheet cake at Costco. But for those of us who’ve ever been sick, broke or chronically both—and let’s be real, that’s most of us—these two programs are more than government policies. They are lifelines. Feminist infrastructure. Miracles wrapped in red tape.
Medicaid and Medicare are the government’s half-hearted whisper of “okay, fine, you can live,” buried under broken fax machines and six hours of hold music—and still, they are miraculous.
So let’s get to work with petitions, protests, poetry and better policy. When we fight for these programs, we’re not begging for scraps. We’re demanding infrastructure for care. We’re saying, Our dignity is not a rounding error. We are not too complicated or too expensive or too much. We are exactly the point.
Happy birthday Medicaid and Medicare, the baddest Leos in American policy—dramatic, protective, always carrying us all on their backs while being called “too much.” We see you. We need you. And we’ll fight for you. How dare we not?
(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)
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