Khalil Pereira was 18 years old when he suffered a traumatic brain injury after a car accident. On Thursday, Mr. Pereira, now 22, and his family will speak with New Jersey legislators in Washington, D.C., to push for protecting children's Medicaid funding — which paid for Mr. Pereira's rehabilitation — from ACA repeal efforts.
Here are four things to know.
1. Mr. Pereira was riding in the backseat of a car coming home from college when the driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the vehicle. Mr. Pereira was ejected through the windshield and acquired a traumatic brain injury. He spent three weeks in an acute care hospital before transferring to New Brunswick, N.J.-based Children's Specialized Hospital.
2. When Mr. Pereira arrived at Children's, he was unable to walk, talk and had lost all muscle control. While at Children's, Mr. Pereira underwent six months of intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy, among other treatment.
3. Although he experienced a couple set backs due to seizures, Mr. Pereira is "doing excellent" four years after the accident, Shanette Pereira, Mr. Pereira's mother, told Becker's Hospital Review. Mr. Pereira has a part-time job at a nursing home, holds a driver's license and is looking to return to college. Ms. Pereira cited the care he received at Children's as reason for his rehabilitation — services only attainable because of Medicaid, she said.
"The Medicaid was an important part, because without it, I don't know how I would have paid the services [Mr. Pereira] received from Children's," she said, which she estimated at one point exceeded $500,000. "For my family, [Medicaid] was a lifeline. I felt like I could get my son all the care he needed."
4. The Pereira family is telling their story to legislators on Thursday in response to GOP's attempt to repeal the ACA, which expanded Medicaid eligibility. The GOP's Senate healthcare bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, would repeal Medicaid expansion and decrease funding through per capita caps, with the option to apply for a block grant.