A mother spoke with Sen. John Curtis (R) about how Medicaid saved her son's life — and she said he didn't care.
Speaking to MSNBC on Tuesday, Alison Chandra said that she was told her unborn baby had a defect that made him "incompatible with life." She was encouraged to terminate her pregnancy.
However, she is avidly anti-abortion, so decided to move forward with the birth anyway. She credits Medicaid with saving her son's life.
"So Medicaid paid for, at the beginning, the rest of that pregnancy, and it paid for his birth and for his first two open heart surgeries," she said. "At that point, my husband got his green card. He's Canadian originally, and was able to get a job, and we were able to transition to private insurance. So, we are one of the few families really in the heterotaxy world who are able to make do with just private insurance right now."
Chandra went to see Curtis to explain why Medicaid was so important and why he should oppose any cuts to the program in President Donald Trump's 2026 budget. She said that Curtis didn't give her much sympathy.
"I was very disappointed in that meeting," she confessed. "I would think that he would understand, sort of, the importance of this. He was very dismissive of my concerns. He kind of stood over us at the table. He wouldn't sit down at the table with my children and me. And basically the message that I received was, it doesn't matter that you're here bringing me the stories of children like your son and children like the ones in Utah that you care for. I'm still going to just vote party line."
Chandra's son, Ethan, turns 11 years old today.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scored in its report that the updated Senate bill of the 2026 budget would have $930 billion in Medicaid cuts, NBC News reported Monday. The CBO also stated that the bill will increase the number of uninsured Americans by 11.8 million over the next ten years.
See the clip below or at the link here.