My Biblical namesake Miriam contracted a horrible illness known as tzara’at, often translated as “leprosy,” which modern commentators believe was a skin rash with a spiritual component requiring ritual purification. There’s no record she needed to show her health insurance card before being offered support, both from her brothers Aaron and Moses and from the entire community, who waited out her isolation period of seven days.
Throughout our sacred texts, there are other instances of people getting sick and then healed, such as in 2 Kings when Naaman, a powerful Syrian general, also has the same terrible tzara’at. He seeks out Elisha the prophet who doesn’t meet him in person but sends a medical plan: bathe seven times in the Jordan. Naaman is at first offended — but finally complies and is healed. In this example Naaman is a foreigner and a military enemy, yet the Jewish prophet still finds compassion and offers him medical advice.
Much later we have Maimonides (1138–1204), known as the Rambam. He was a rabbi, philosopher and court physician to Sultan Saladin in Egypt. Rambam saw providing medical care as a commanded obligation, and using Talmudic reasoning, wrote that if you can restore a person’s health and don’t do so, you are in fact violating Jewish law.
At this point, you might be saying to yourself, very interesting, Michelle, but what do these three examples of Jewish history have to with me, my family and my community?
Well right now we are facing down a dark cloud of uncertainty over the future of Medicaid, our national health insurance program for the poor, elderly and disabled.
The current House budget calls for cutting a staggering $880 billion over the next 10 years, and the only way to accomplish that goal would be to make deep cuts in our Medicaid program, which is a joint federal and state program. In California, the program is called Medi-Cal.
Medi-Cal covers 14.5 million Californians, including 39% of all births statewide, includes 2.3 million seniors and people with disabilities, many of whom receive In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) which provides for caregivers in their homes instead of being forced into nursing homes, which are far more expensive and less desirable.
Medi-Cal is also the health insurance for 3.4 million working Californians whose employers don’t offer health insurance in such industries as agriculture and restaurants.
As the Executive Director of the nonprofit JLA Trust which helps hundreds of people with disabilities keep their government benefits through affordable special needs trustee services, and as the mother of a 30-year-old-son with severe disabilities, I know firsthand the primacy of preserving Medicaid, and why is this is a front-burner issue for our Jewish community. As Rabbi Richard Address of Jewish Sacred Aging has written, “We have written and spoken about the fact that the issue of health care, in all its ramifications, is now THE social justice issue for our generation.“
There’s Irene, a 82-year-old frail Jewish woman who uses a wheelchair. Her daily IHSS worker ensures that she is eating, able to take showers and can stay in her beloved home, with its many memories and items collected over a lifetime.
For Sam, a 40-year-old man with Type 1 diabetes, Medi-Cal pays for his ongoing care, including an insulin pump and monitoring devices.
And for Debbie, 50, who is blind in one eye and has chronic pain conditions, her Medi-Cal health insurance is the only way she can see the specialists she depends on, along with her prescription medications.
Nationally, for those one in five people enrolled in Medicare who also receive Medicaid, any cuts will reduce their ability to access healthcare, including prescription drugs. Medicaid covers the monthly premiums for Part B of Medicare and covers out-of-pocket expenses, such as co-pays and deductibles. Medicaid also covers important health-related costs not covered by Medicare, such as transportation to medical appointments, medical equipment like mobilized wheelchairs, dental, vision, and hearing benefits.
As Moses said to Hashem many years ago, “Please God, heal her (Miriam), I beseech you” we now need to speak out as one voice and ensure the continued healing of the most vulnerable among us.
Michelle K. Wolf is a parent disability advocate and the Founding Executive Director of JLA Trust & Services https://jlatrust.org/
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.