For Maria Paredez, the slashing of Medicaid funding is no political football, or some abstract argument emanating from Republicans in Congress about the size of government. It hits her where she lives: a small house in a small town in Tulare County, where she struggles to get from one month to the next.
Paredez is not a victim, though — she’s an employee. She has for the past three years cared for her grandmother, who’s now 88, through a program exclusive to California called In Home Supportive Services (IHSS). The IHSS pays people to take care of Medi-Cal eligible Californians who are elderly, blind or disabled, allowing those folks to hire their caregivers, 70% of whom are relatives. They can thus remain in their homes or with family rather than being funneled into costly care centers or nursing facilities, for which the state would have to pay.
