Medicaid and Cancer
This letter was initially published in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
News
Opinion from the South Dakota Searchlight: Don’t confuse lower Medicaid utilization with success
September 4, 2026
Healthcare is not a luxury, but a necessity.
At a time when costs are rising in seemingly all sectors of life, it would be tragic for the access to care we all need to become something that can only be afforded by individuals with high incomes and those who are more financially stable while all others must go without.
People working hard for low wages should not have to choose between seeing a doctor and the essentials required to survive day-to-day. Healthcare might not feel as immediate a need on some days as food or shelter, but there’s a clock ticking on all of us and the day is always coming when our need for a doctor is so real that it will supersede all others. Income should not be a determining factor in access to basic care, but for far too many that is reality.
For the rest of this commentary by Jessica Gilbertson, ACS CAN South Dakota Government Relations Director, visit the South Dakota Searchlight.