Medicaid patients await decision on future of coverage

PHOENIX - Will the federal government allow Arizona to drop 280,000 patients from Medicaid?

While government officials wait on a decision, patients across the Valley ponder what their lives might look like without the aid. 

"If the government takes away AHCCCS, I'll be dead," said Manuel Raphael.

He and two other men agreed to do an interview with ABC15 to talk about how important Medicaid is to their lives.

Manuel, Rick and Robert all get help with treatment and housing by working with Marc Center in central Phoenix, which serves some 1,300 people in a year.

"This is the place we call come together to get help," says Robert.

But if Medicaid is cut, officials and patients fear patients like these will end up in emergency room or morgues. 

"These people will either die or go to hospitals because they have nowhere else to go," says Program Director for Marc Center, Donna Crews.  From her point of view, the government picks on the vulnerable during times of trouble. 

Governor Jan Brewer has asked the federal government for a waiver to cut 280,000 people from Medicaid and in turn save the state more than $500 million. 

"There is no good way to do this," Gov. Brewer said Monday.  "But without these cuts, one million people face losing health care."