I am an employed Educator and am also a graduate student. I am Deaf and I hire Deaf Personal Care Attendants. I use a wheelchair for mobility and have significant health issues, including noninvasive ventilation and parenteral nutrition and hydration. Despite these limitations, I am a productive member of society, pay taxes, and pay premiums for three sources of health insurance. (Private indemnity plan, Medicare A/B/D, and a Medicaid supplement that only covers hearing aids every 5 years and PCA services for 48 hours/week. I live an an area with spotty cell phone coverage. While it has improved over the years, I still cannot get cell service inside my house. In order to make a call, I need to go into my back yard. How will this work, if my PCA has helped me transfer into my bed…and then needs me to go outside to verify her hours?

I am NOT home bound when I have PCA assistance. Losing this critical service would force me to quit my job, quit grad school, and spend my days “living off the system” while forcing my adult children and husband to become my full time caregivers. I am extremely disheartened that the federal government is making plans to cut the services that force me to give up my well-paying job while simultaneously discussing the implementation of mandatory employment for other individuals receiving Medicaid. Why would the GOP refuse my right to work?

By the way, my job as an Adult Basic Educator for Deaf adults involves assisting individuals who want to obtain Hogh School equivalency certificates in order to enter tech training programs or community college. My forced resignation would undoubtedly have a negative effect on the individuals to whom I provide English literacy and numeracy instruction. Losing my job is likely to negatively impact the individuals who I am assisting a transition from government assistance to self-sufficiency through education and trade skills acquisition.

This does not make sense. What is the purported goal of English literacy, high school equivalency certification, and job training programs? I thought this administration pledged support for retaining displaced workers, including work suitable for d/Deaf and hard of hearing adults

The current system allows my PCAs to sign in and out online under their own names. They can do this right from my home computer. I receive a report listing everyone’s hours and have the ability to correct errors. I compare the arrival and departure times to my master schedule and contact the PCA to check on any discrepancies, such as forgetting to log in/out or an error when reporting dates or times.