1. United States
2. Neb.
3. Letter

As both a nurse and a caregiver for aged and disabled family members, I am terrified of what may happen to medicare and medicaid as well as Social security. I have an 83 year old grandmother who was mainly a home maker and her only source of income is her Social security. The years she could have worked, she spent taking care of her bed-ridden daughter with MS until my aunt passed away a little over 10 years ago. My mother, who worked caring for those who are developmentally disabled until her body literally started to fail, now lives in a one star nursing home in omaha and is completely dependant between her medicare and her SSI to pay for her room and board, and its barely suitable for anyone to live there. Our CMS needs to be more strict about for-profit nursing homes, when you have only 1 aide for 50 residents and tell the residents that they have to wait foe the bathroom so long they become incontinent. And then there is brother, who is mentally ill with schizoaffective disorder and daily complains about voices that tell him to kill himself. There is already barely any services for those like my brother, who are mentally ill but not mentally or physically disabled. He lives in assisted living facility for his own safety. If you take away any government funding for those programs that they rely on, I don't know what I'll do. I already use any of my money not spent on bills to assure they have some kind of quality of life like TV, internet access, and cellphones. There would be no way I could support all 3 on my income, let alone house them in my home of less than 900 sq feet. My mother needs a sit to stand lift to stand up, and I have ptsd from my brother being abusive in our childhood. Please, think of your poorest constiuents. The thousands that rely on these programs to live--and its not even a great quality of life, just enough for a roof and a mediocre meal 3 times a day with no money left over for snacks, television, or anything like that.