‘The only reason’
Medicaid coverage helped Ali Wahl beat cancer for a second time at age 26
Ali Wahl, 30 Sheridan
Quality and Risk Manager, Ruby Valley Medical Center
Enrolled in Medicaid expansion program December 2020 through August 2022
“Without Medicaid, where would I be? Who knows.”
Ali Wahl had just started a new job when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma for a second time. “
I was 26 and had just finished Peace Corps service,” Wahl said. “I had moved to Missoula and was living life. I was working at the front desk at a healthcare office. But I hadn’t been there for 90 days, and even if I was able to stay working, I wouldn’t have been able to work for 40 hours so I wouldn’t have been able to be insured. The only reason I was able to be treated was because of Medicaid.”
Wahl was 15 the first time she beat Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2021 after her second diagnosis, Wahl was covered through Montana’s Medicaid expansion program, enacted as part of the HELP Act passed by the Montana Legislature in 2015 to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income adults. Medicaid expansion currently covers more than 80,000 adults in Montana. More than three-quarters of people covered by Medicaid expansion are employed or attending school.
Wahl completed two rounds of chemotherapy, three weeks of radiation, a stem cell transplant and 6 months of immunotherapy after her second diagnosis.She has since earned Master’s in Healthcare Administration from the University of North Carolina Gilling’s School of Global Public Health, and is the Risk and Quality Manager at Ruby Valley Medical Center in Sheridan.
Wahl still wonders where she’d be without Medicaid coverage—and she knows she’s not the only one.
“Medicaid expansion is the only reason that me, and millions of people around the country, and thousands of people around Montana, are able to go to the doctor at all,” she said.
The Medicaid expansion program will sunset unless it is renewed by Montana Legislature in 2025. Continuing Medicaid expansion not only protects coverage for thousands of Montanans, it maintains a crucial lifeline for maintaining healthcare services in all communities.
“Without Medicaid (expansion) to cover access for thousands of adults, it just puts pressure on every aspect of the healthcare industry,” Wahl said.
Comments