While 50,000 to 60,000 Medicaid recipients in Ohio wait to hear the fate of their health care coverage, one woman is doing something to save hers.

Sonja Parson, a Columbus native, full-time student, wife and mother, is trying to hold onto her Medicaid health care coverage.

On April 5, Parson testified before the state House Finance Committee, asking them not to go through with the proposed cutbacks in Medicaid eligibility.

Parson is one of many testifying before the House, and then the Senate, urging lawmakers to keep their Medicaid coverage intact.

As a full-time, pre-med student and mother of five children, she relies on her husband’s $10.75 per hour job and Medicaid to survive.

“I had a life-threatening condition, in which I still have to obtain prompt follow-up care,” Parson said.

Also, her husband had to have a painful bone spur removed from his foot last year. If left untreated, he would not have been able to work.

While her husband’s construction company does offer health care coverage, they cannot afford the premiums and co-pay.

Parson receives financial aid and pays for the rest of her schooling out of her pocket. If she loses her health coverage she would not be able to finish college.

“I would have to quit school and go back to work,” she said. “If I or my husband had a medical catastrophe, there would be no way to pay for it.”

Parson learned of possible Medicaid cuts from a woman at her neighborhood community house, who directed her to the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio, where she joined other families from around Ohio in the fight to save Medicaid.

“There was a meeting Thursday night at UHCAN discussing strategies for testifying in front of the Senate,” Parson said.

Cathy Levine, executive director of UHCAN, said pre-existing health conditions, like Parson’s are a great concern for those losing their health insurance.

They need health coverage in order to work. If they take too many days off work because of a health condition, they will lose their job, Levine said.

If the parents cannot have their health taken needs met, and are constantly ill, they will be less able to take care of their children’s health and take them to the doctor, Levine said.

Many of these working women rely on Medicaid to receive birth control. Without this coverage some are worried more women will become pregnant and not be able to work.

Alexis Winfield, a social worker for the Columbus’ Health Department prenatal program, said if working women were no longer able to afford birth control, there would be an increase of unintended pregnancies.

Winfield works at Columbus’ three prenatal clinic locations and sees about 80 to 90 new clients each month. At max all three clinics can handle 108 new clients. Although, in September of this year the clinic on West Broad Street will be closing due to budget cuts.

“There won’t be as much of us to deal with the caseload,” she said.

Another concern is that women will have more babies so they can go back on welfare and receive medical coverage.

“Without Medicaid, a pregnant woman is only eligible for prenatal care and care up to 60 days after birth,” Winfield said. “They would have to be on assistance to get coverage after birth.”

According to Levine, children, pregnant women and families comprise about 25 percent of all Ohio’s Medicaid recipients.