Speaker: Kaylen Barker
Kaylen Barker: My name is Kaylen Barker and I'm a 9th generation West Virginian living on a small farm in Kanawha County with my wife and son.
Kaylen Barker : Medicaid is one of the only reasons that my son and I are alive today. I found myself pregnant with my abuser's baby and didn't know what to do. I was young, and didn't have access to healthcare or insurance and had preexisting conditions. So I stayed married to him because he had military insurance and I didn't. And it wasn't until I was at the hospital the day that I had my son, that the nurse told me about Medicaid and said that I would qualify. I was able to leave the man that had physically, mentally, psychologically and sexually abused me for years. So when people say that Medicaid is a lifeline, they don't mean it in just the traditional sense. Medicaid and access to it literally saves lives.
Roughly 40% of single moms in West Virginia are covered by Medicaid or CHIP
Learn more about Kaylen's story
& add your voice to the movement to improve reproductive & sexual health outcomes for West Virginia women and families.
wvahc.org/act/echoes
