Kennedy in Taunton to learn firsthand impact of Trumpcare on … – Taunton Daily Gazette

Charles Winokoor Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter @cwinokoor

TAUNTON Congressman Joe Kennedy stopped off Friday at Community Counseling of Bristol County to get feedback from officials representing the non-profit group about their concerns over possible cuts to Medicaid funding.

But it was a subsequent, informal roundtable meeting with people who have received treatment at the community-based CCBC that seemed to leave the greatest impression on the 4th District congressman.

Its extraordinarily powerful for me to hear your stories, Kennedy told a group that included three men and two women some of whom had just provided harrowing details of their personal lives, and all of whom praised the Taunton-based non-profit for keeping their lives from completely spinning out of control.

Before Kennedy sat down to listen to those personal stories, he met in a different conference room with CCBC president and CEO Philip Shea and some of Sheas staffers, who provided numbers outlining the impact Medicaid funding has on their various treatment services.

Besides CCBC in Taunton, Kennedy was also scheduled Friday to visit both Horace Mann Educational Associates in Bellingham and Seven Hills Pediatric Center in Hopedale.

The purpose of the visits was to stress Kennedys opposition to the latest version of President Donald Trumps proposed replacement of the Affordable Care Act which Kennedy says would directly slash Medicaid funding by more than $800 billion over 10 years and would collectively reduce all Medicaid-related funding by $1.4 trillion over the same period.

We lost money in 2017 and will probably lose more next year, and Im not absolutely confident well be here in three years doing the same sorts of things the same way, Shea said.

Shea told Kennedy that the federal Medicaid program provides funding for 58 percent of CCBCs programs and services. He said the mental-health and addiction treatment non-profit currently has close to 12,000 clients or patients.

Fall River native Ted Lopes told Kennedy that Community Counseling of Bristol County has been providing him with temporary lodging at one of its houses and is helping him find a new health insurance carrier after he was dropped by the states MassHealth program.

Lopes recounted how he drifted into opioid addiction first oxycodone and then heroin after contracting cement poisoning in a knee from working as a union bricklayer and mason.

I was in Rhode Island Hospital 30 days. They almost cut my leg off, Lopes, 54, said.

He said he blames himself for a stint in jail It was all self-induced and ended up homeless on the streets of Fall River, at one point crashing in an abandoned mill in 2015 that caught fire.

But Lopes, who described himself as Irish Catholic, said his faith in God kept him from becoming just one more statistic: I didnt want to go out (die) as a junkie on the street, he said.

After rehab and detox stints in other towns and cities, he said he landed a solid job driving a truck but blew out two discs in his back by simply opening a door.

I was paralyzed, he said, until receiving injections at Morton Hospitals pain clinic. But by then, Lopes said, he had lost his medical coverage.

We try to help them with insurance, said Ellen Bruder-Moore Abramowitz, vice president of housing and community initiatives at CCBC.

Lopes said during his treatment at Morton a doctor discovered a cancerous spot on his liver, for which he will be operated on at Bostons St. Elizabeths Medical Center.

I take one step at a time, he said. Im scared, but Im doing what I can do.

Demitri Marovelli, 44, told Kennedy he considers CCBC to be a truly angelic network and truly a blessing for their professional counseling services.

With his service dog Opie, a chihuahua mix, at his feet, Marovelli described how the non-profit has helped him deal with long-term anxiety after his release from prison where he served time for drug-related charges.

CCBC, he said, convinced him that recidivism is curable.

After collecting government assistance, Marovelli says he was encouraged to start his own business. He said he now employs six workers and has three trucks as part of his T&K Handyman Services.

A woman named Mary said CCBC kept my son alive until he could be accepted into a psychiatric program at Bradley Hospital.

She said her son, who is now almost 21, was molested as a boy by her cousin in her own house while he was visiting from Minnesota.

He was brazen, she said of the cousin, who eventually was arrested and charged.

But her son, said Mary, 52, developed full-blown obsessive compulsive disorder and was most recently treated at McLean Hospital in Belmont.

She asked Kennedy why the government cant provide funding for a treatment center for children who have been sexually molested by sexual predators and years later suffer the psychological, emotional and behavioral scars of those assaults.

I cant tell you there is (such a childrens services program), but I will tell you that I can try, Kennedy said.

She said at one point she and her second husband sold their home to continue paying for her sons treatments.

Mary also said she knows firsthand how devastating drug addiction is, having lost a brother and two cousins to fatal overdoses.

Its inspiring, the soft-spoken Kennedy told the group. I promise that well keep trying. Im really honored that youve shared your stories with me. hang in there.

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Kennedy in Taunton to learn firsthand impact of Trumpcare on ... - Taunton Daily Gazette