Erica Olenski, a single mother of three in McKinney, Texas, juggles the responsibilities of parenthood and a full-time job, in addition to the demands of her 5-year-old son’s brain cancer.
August was diagnosed in May 2019 and was declared cancer-free the following year, though medical complications lingered. Then in September of this year, he relapsed and restarted radiation treatment, Olenski said. Roughly two months later, a letter came: The Texas Health and Human Services Commission said August and one of his siblings were no longer eligible for Medicaid and would be kicked off unless Olenski could provide documentation verifying her employment history.
She had roughly three weeks before August would lose coverage.
“It’s already stressful enough to go through cancer treatment with a child. I mean, pediatric cancer is awful. It’s absolutely awful,” Olenski said. “And then to have something like this, that really seemed like an administrative issue, threaten our sense of stability and safety as we’re going through something that’s really traumatic was awful.”
For August in particular, Medicaid was a lifeline — it covered radiation and private nurses to care for him around the clock, Olenski said.