“Last year, Medicaid was just another word to me,” said Thomas (TJ) Buckley, after explaining to a small crowd in Northglenn how he’d been blindsided by a horrible disease that he’s been able to fight thanks to Medicaid, a federal health insurance program for low-income people. “I hope none of you ever have to learn why Medicaid truly matters the way I did. Today it means something entirely different. It means another appointment kept, another treatment received, another chance to plan for the future, another holiday celebrated with friends and family, another ordinary day that suddenly doesn’t feel so ordinary anymore.”
Buckley explained that his experience with Medicaid inspired him to speak up to save the program that Republicans in Washington voted to slash by $1 trillion last year.
“I also learned that one policy decision can change whether life remains affordable,” said Buckley to the crowd. “That is why I accepted the invitation to speak today. To turn me into an advocate, and if I need to be that face and that voice, then I shall be.”
Buckley told his story in front of a crowd gathered in Northglenn this morning to mark the 61st birthday of Medicaid by denouncing U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) for voting with fellow Republicans for the Big Beautiful Bill, which will throw an estimated 100,000 Coloradans from the health care program in the coming years…