ICYMI: Harper’s Bazaar: “I'm a Care Worker Recovering from a Stroke. Medicaid Keeps Me Alive.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 12, 2025 

CONTACT: Daniela Perez, [email protected]

ICYMI: Harper’s Bazaar: “I’m a Care Worker Recovering from a Stroke. Medicaid Keeps Me Alive.” 

NDWA Member and Georgia constituent Jacqueline Lamar shares her powerful experience as a mom, a care worker, and a Medicaid recipient, urging Congress not to cut Medicaid 

As Congress debates a budget that could take health care away from as many as 13.7 million children, older adults, and people with disabilities, NDWA member and Georgia constituent Jacqueline Lamar told her story today in Harper’s Bazaar. 

Read Jacqueline’s story in full here and see below for excerpts. 

• “I’ve been a home care worker for years. I started this work after caring for my grandmother, who couldn’t afford extra help, and I wanted other patients to feel the same love and support I gave her. I know what it means to give care–and to need it. Medicaid isn’t just a program for me. It helps me provide my salary and it’s how I keep going. How I keep my family afloat. How I show up for the people who count on me.”

• “Now, some lawmakers want to go even further. A new proposal drawn up this week would punish people like me, who rely on Medicaid, for being sick, disabled, or poor. A new provision would require recipients under 65 to provide proof of having completed at least 80 hours of work each month and undergo more frequent eligibility checks, and it would allow states to charge co-pays up to $35 per visit. That’s not reform. It’s an attack on care.”

• “I didn’t go to D.C. to sightsee. I went as a mother. As someone who knows what it means to depend on Medicaid for both income and care.”

• “This summer, care workers and care recipients like me will keep showing up with urgency, with pressure, and with unwavering resolve to fight for better wages, safer working conditions, and the healthcare we all deserve.”

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National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) is the leading voice for dignity and fairness for millions of domestic workers in the United States. Founded in 2007, NDWA works for respect, recognition and inclusion in labor protections for domestic workers, the majority of whom are immigrants and women of color. NDWA is powered by over 70 affiliate organizations and local chapters and by a growing membership base of nannies, house cleaners and care workers in over 20 states. Learn more at www.domesticworkers.org. NDWA is a non-partisan non-profit organization that does not endorse, support, or oppose any candidates for public office.