Maria Shmitt Tucumcari, NM created on Fri November 15, 2013

I am Maria Shmitt. I live in Tucumcari, NM. I’ve lived here most of my life. My 19 year old daughter’s Medicaid just expired. She has a history of Kidney stones, very large ovarian cysts. She also has issues with asthma and other chronic illnesses. I’m in a panic trying to figure out a way to insure her because of all these medical issues she’s been having. I’m excited that there is going to be a program that’s going to become available for her, to be able to benefit from these services that she really, really needs.

Since she was about 12 years old, she’s been experiencing these issues. They thought it was her appendix so they took her appendix out but she kept having issues. They found it was actually a kidney stone.

I’m a single mom and even with my Master’s degree it’s difficult. So, both of my kids are on Medicaid.

Right now we’re trying to get my daughter on a temporary program, because she just turned 19. We’ve been talking with the NM Center on Law and Poverty and trying to figure out how that transfer is going to work.