There is not much Josh Lockwood-Wewer loves more than Disney. The affable 33-year-old speaks almost exclusively in the voices of his favorite characters: Mickey Mouse, the Muppets’ Kermit the Frog and, above all, Goofy. He has watched The Lion King nearly every day since its 1994 release — well over 5,000 times, according to his mother. His family moved from Maryland to Anaheim, California, when he was in his early 20s just to be closer to Disneyland.
As an adult with severe autism, Lockwood-Wewer depends on around-the-clock support from multiple aides. His caregivers prepare his meals and watch as he eats to make sure he doesn’t choke. They drive him everywhere from doctor’s appointments to his favorite restaurant, a fast food joint called Paul’s Place where he orders two chicken tenders every time. And they administer his regimen of a dozen daily medications to control his psychosis, depression and anxiety.
Lockwood-Wewer can only afford that support thanks to publicly funded programs — In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) and the Regional Center of Orange County — that fully cover his in-home care and community-based services, which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
But that funding may soon be at risk under a proposal by Republican lawmakers that could slash as much as $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade. Cuts of that magnitude would impact millions across the country and could be especially debilitating to low-income people with disabilities like Lockwood-Wewer, according to Beth Martinko, his mother and primary caretaker. She is one of many health care advocates who are now pressuring Republican lawmakers across the country to vote against Medicaid cuts that could be devastating for families and politically unpopular.
In late February, Martinko spoke in front of more than 200 people at a packed town hall meeting in a Tustin community center. The event was organized by a coalition of health care advocacy groups working to pressure the district’s representative, Republican congresswoman Young Kim, to reject cuts to Medicaid. Attendees applauded as speakers stressed how integral Medicaid was to their families, and booed and yelled “shame!” when they mentioned Republicans’ proposed cuts.
Martinko lives just outside of that district, but 157,000 of Kim’s constituents are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state-run Medicaid program, making the topic of federal funding cuts especially poignant.
Though the GOP’s budget resolution does not explicitly call for Medicaid cuts, it directs the committee that oversees the health care program to cut $880 billion, which would be impossible without cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Medicaid is a government health insurance program that covers 83 million low-income people in the United States and has more beneficiaries than Medicare, which provides health insurance primarily to people 65 and older.
Republicans have not released the exact cuts they are expected to vote on in the coming months, but an internal document obtained by Politico revealed several possibilities under consideration, including new requirements that beneficiaries provide proof of employment to receive benefits.
Some groups, like people with disabilities, could be exempt from those requirements, but that is little consolation to Martinko, who said her son would “fall out of network and die” before being able to make it through the complex and bureaucratic process of obtaining an exemption. Lockwood-Wewer would not be alone. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 36 million people across the country could lose their health insurance if Medicaid work requirements are implemented.
Both In-Home Supportive Services, which provides support for over 700,000 low-income Californians who have disabilities or who are 65 and older, and California’s 21 Regional Centers, nonprofits that coordinate services for individuals with developmental disabilities, largely depend on funding from Medicaid. Health care advocates fear Republicans’ proposed federal cuts would cause those California programs to be reduced or even eliminated.
It’s hard for Martinko to see how the family would manage without that support. When Lockwood-Wewer’s father died of lung cancer in 2013, Martinko quit her job to become her son’s full-time care provider. Two years later, the pair moved from Maryland to California, where they have benefited from robust state-run health care programs that rely heavily on Medicaid funding.
California’s federally subsidized programs for people with disabilities have enabled Lockwood-Wewer to stay healthy and safe while also developing his interests and professional skills. In-Home Supportive Services has provided funding for Martinko and other aides to maintain Lockwood-Wewer’s well being. The Regional Center of Orange County has fostered his love of animation by arranging voice acting training that prepares him for job opportunities and has coordinated theater classes that have provided him with a supportive social environment of peers.
Martinko said it took years to navigate the state’s complicated network of benefits to get her son approved for the assistance he needed. As a 71-year-old, two-time cancer survivor, she was constantly worried she would get sick again before being able to enroll her son in the necessary programs. So when it all finally came together last year, she was thrilled and relieved.
“I felt like I could die and he would be OK because he had this whole sustaining system,” Martinko said.
But when she learned that the GOP’s budget resolution threatened to upend Medicaid funding, she said it was “like somebody opened my front door and threw a grenade in.”
Martinko’s congressional representative, Democrat Lou Correa, voted against that Republican budget resolution and has repeatedly warned of the risks to people on Medicaid. That’s why Martinko, who is a registered Democrat, has focused her efforts on pressuring Republican House members, like Rep. Kim, who are more likely to support cutting health care programs.
If Medicaid cuts reduce his In-Home Supportive Services funding, Lockwood-Wewer would no longer be able to afford his at-home care. That would push his mother and other aides, like June Mekker, who first met the family when she was a Disneyland employee and who now lives with them, to look for other jobs.
Mekker said she voted Republican “all the way down the ticket” in the 2024 election, believing Donald Trump’s promises to protect Medicare and Social Security extended to Medicaid as well. She now fears that might not be the case.
“I will feel very, very, very betrayed and disrespected,” Mekker said. “Everything in [Lockwood-Wewer’s] life would stop. I would have to go back to working a regular job, which means he wouldn’t get that support.”
Because In-Home Supportive Services pays for Martinko’s full-time caregiving services, she depends on the program to afford their mortgage payment. If benefits are slashed and Martinko once again becomes too ill to work, Mekker said, the family could end up “on the street.
Republicans have pitched Medicaid cuts as a way to root out “waste, fraud and abuse” from federal programs, but health care advocates like Jordan Lindsey, executive director of the disability advocacy nonprofit The Arc of California, said those politicians are being disingenuous.
“The cuts they are proposing are not designed with a scalpel to cut out waste and abuse. They’re just using a club,” Lindsey said. “Supporting a Californian with Down syndrome or cerebral palsy or profound autism to integrate into society is not waste and abuse.”
Republican attacks on Medicaid are nothing new, according to Gerald Kominski, senior fellow at UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research. Kominski attributes GOP lawmakers’ efforts to cut government benefits like Medicaid to a “deeply held resentment of government programs that support low-income individuals” and their desire to cut federal spending to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthy.
That could be a political vulnerability, however, as Kominski said many voters likely see that tradeoff as “blatant robbing from the poor to support the rich.” And even though “it doesn’t make sense politically,” Kominski said GOP lawmakers are seizing their moment of political power and charging ahead to follow through on their longstanding efforts to shrink the social safety net.
That vulnerability is what health care advocates are pouncing on by organizing events like the February town hall in Rep. Kim’s district. Martinko, who was among the first to speak at that forum, made an emotional plea for her son. She described him as the “embodiment of joy,” and spoke about his passion for Disney and for writing stories where “the heroes always win and the villains always lose.” Martinko then appealed directly to Rep. Kim.
“I urge you to consider the faces behind the policies,” Martinko said. “Let’s come together to ensure that Medicaid funding remains intact, so that individuals like Josh continue to thrive, contribute and bring joy to our lives. You have the opportunity to be the hero in the most important story in Josh’s life.”
Rep. Kim was invited to the event but did not attend. Five days later she voted in favor of the budget resolution that stands to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicaid.
Rep. Kim’s office did not respond to an interview request but pointed to a previous statement posted on her website after the vote that said she understood the importance of Medicaid and that she would not vote for a budget that “does not protect vital Medicaid services for the most vulnerable.”
Martinko has not given up hope. She has attended virtual meetings with advocacy groups, signed onto public letters and gone to rallies outside of Rep. Kim’s Anaheim office.
Martinko said she is doing everything possible to ensure Medicaid funding remains available for the programs that have allowed Lockwood-Wewer to remain healthy and happy at home, because without them, “The light would go out in Josh’s life.”
