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SALT LAKE CITY — Carolyn Tuft, a survivor of the 2007 siege at Trolley Square, called on state lawmakers Monday to pass Medicaid reform.
Tuft said she has no prescription coverage and can't afford drugs to counteract the hundreds of lead gunshot pellets that remain in her body.
Tuft is one of nine people shot during the attack at Trolley Square on Feb. 12, 2007, by a single gunman. Tuft's 15-year-old daughter, Kirsten Hinckley, was one of five people killed at the shopping mall that day.
"I was shot three times, and I live with lead poisoning because I have hundreds of lead pellets from the shotgun in me. So I was disabled from that day," she said.
Before that, she was a single mother who ran her own business and had her own home "and paid my bills and was a hardworking community member. Now I'm really sick every day and I can't work. I live on $500 a month from disability," Tuft told members of the Utah Legislature's Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee, at times weeping.
Tuft said she lives "in the crack because I don't qualify for Obamacare because I don't make enough money because I can't work because I was shot. I don't qualify for Medicaid for whatever reason because we don't have that expansion. I'm here to ask you for expansion because I need medication to survive."
Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, said Tuft's testimony was a reminder of the many faces impacted by the coverage gap, and she thanked her for her bravery in addressing the committee.
"As we explore this further, I think we need to understand that a lot of the proposals being reviewed at present wouldn't necessarily cover an individual in your circumstances," Chavez-Houck said.
"We need to move forward with what we've had in front of us the last three years, which would have given you this opportunity to get this medication you need well before now." Email: marjorie@deseretnews.com
