Today my mom came home after her typical eight-hour workday with a story I thought everyone should hear.

A patron came in and was talking about her recent trip to the government run office in our town that registers people for Medicaid. She had been burdened with a few high medical bills recently and was wondering if she could qualify for some Medicaid benefits just to help her out a bit with this slump. She asked if she could just receive the aid for six months and then be taken off as soon as that time was up. The Medicaid workers told her to, and I quote, “Go get yourself pregnant and then you can qualify.” She marched right out of there. Not long before hearing this, my mom was dealing with another person that got mad at her for scheduling an appointment for him at nine in the morning. He was upset because he says he never gets up that early, and my mom asked if he worked a night shift job that made it difficult to get up in the mornings. He said, "Work? What the hell is work? I don't need to work?" His nearby significant other snickered that she didn't have a job either. Yet, somehow they can afford to have several tattoos, brand new iPhones, and qualify to receive benefits from Medicaid.

It is stories like this that make me worried about the future of America. It ticks me off so much that people are breathing and living on this earth that are actually getting paid to sit on their butts and do absolutely nothing. You aren’t benefiting this world in any way, shape, or form, and I ask, sincerely, what the hell is wrong with you? Medicaid was created for the sole purpose of helping people, like the girl, that were in a slump. In its beginnings it was a great idea, and I’m sure it was able to help out so many people back then just as I’m sure it continues to help out some today. The sad truth is that Medicaid is being completely abused, and the very people that are running it are allowing it to happen. No longer can someone who genuinely wants as little aid as possible get any help at all. On a side note, I receive no federal aid for my college tuition because my parents aren’t considered “poor enough”. They aren’t rich, and they struggle to send both of their kids to college every year. Yet, other students get their entire tuition for free because their parents choose to sit at home, not get a job, and have several children. They’ve learned to work the systems while my family is being financially punished because they feel the need to be a worthy human being and have a paying job. It is the working middle class that puts our hard earned money into taxes to pay for Medicaid and other such programs, yet there isn’t a day that any one of us would receive a penny of that for help. Well, I think the working middle class has suffered long enough.

Why do people on Medicaid not have to provide suffice evidence of them seeking employment or needing the benefits of the program? Why is our government okay with wasting so much money on people that don’t give anything back to our country? Why can’t randomized drug tests be a requirement of Medicaid applicants in all states?

Don’t tell me these poor people can’t get a job. I have been able to find a job since I was 15. There are countless places hiring for the simplest positions, but several people who receive financial aid from our government have learned that they can earn more money by doing nothing. The Medicaid office literally told a woman this. If she went and got pregnant she would not have time to have a job so therefore she would qualify. She knew she did not have time to raise a child properly and refused to let her need of money be the reason for bringing a child into this world. I would be embarrassed to ask for such help let alone receive that help for more than a few months. I can barely accept money from my own parents without paying them back right away. If I had no real contribution to bettering my country and the world, then I would feel like every breath I took was a complete waste because it really is. There are several people on Medicaid that are excessive drug users, and this is amongst the many ways Medicaid is abused. They get drugs from doctors for free and then sell them off. I realize that drug tests can become expensive, but if it was randomized it would be less expensive and would force all people to keep themselves in check. I know that this can make people on Medicaid feel criminalized, but if they knew it was simply just a part of receiving benefits then maybe it would deter them from staying on it for so long. I think it would be worth it to have proof that the taxes that come out of my paychecks for people on Medicaid are actually helping people that need it. The program is being ruined for people that could actually use the help, and I am sincerely sorry for the respectable people that I know are out there.

The fact that I am only 19 years old and can see how just one government aid program is being abused and ruining America is quite sad. You can read all of the requirements and facts online or in brochures, but I don’t care what anyone argues because people are getting around them and abusing this system as well as others. The lack of regulations for the program is forcing me to want to vote for the infamous Donald Trump because I want it gone. It needs to be ended. Hillary Clinton wants to keep and expand Medicaid “because of the children”. However, this program is teaching generation after generation that being lazy and depending on the government for everything is the best option. I can’t live the rest of my adulthood in a country that wastes its money on such programs without proper regulations. I can’t live in a country that is full of people that are so lazy. We are Americans. We know that we have to work hard for the things and the lives that we want. After hearing these words from my mom it is clear to me that our own leaders don’t want us to work for anything anymore. How about we put an end to this waste of our hard earned money and put an end, or serious reformation, to Medicaid.