ANDERSON — Charles Baxter is running out of time.

The 51-year-old Anderson man says his liver is failing, and each day, he wakes wondering if it will be his last.

Baxter, a U.S. Army veteran, says his life is at risk because of the privatization of Indiana’s welfare system.

“The doctor says I’m on borrowed time,” he said Tuesday before a crowd of about 150 other locals experiencing problems with the changing system. “I applied for Medicaid last May and haven’t heard a thing yet.”

Baxter and others attended a meeting at the UAW Local 663 Union Hall in Anderson to discuss a growing opinion that the Family and Social Services Administration’s recent modernization of the welfare system is hurting Hoosiers.

Representatives from United Senior Action of Indiana, Hoosiers First Inc., Madison County Triad, Indiana Alliance for Retired Americans and the Indiana Home Care Task Force organized the event after hearing complaints in recent months that Medicaid benefits, food stamps and state welfare aid had been cut off due to the change.

Several local political figures were represented at the meeting. Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, Rep. Scott Reske, D-Pendleton, and Rep. Dennis Tyler, D-Muncie, attended the forum, while Sen. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, and Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, sent representatives in their place.

FSSA began a modernization pilot program in 12 counties, including Madison County, late last year. Since then, local social service agencies have been flooded with complaints. In March, FSSA expanded the program, outraging its critics.

FSSA’s Mitch Roob maintains that the state has statistics to suggest that the program is helping more Hoosiers.

Judi Turpen of Anderson stood before the crowd and said her mother was recently at risk for being evicted from her assisted living facility because Medicaid would no longer pay the bill. Turpen says FSSA workers wanted to force her to take her mother into her own home, which is not wheelchair accessible. “I called Gov. Daniels’ office and said my house isn’t accessible, but I know yours is because I paid for it.”

After threatening to move her elderly mother into the governor’s mansion, Turpen said, FSSA workers finally resolved her problem.

Robert Guess of Anderson, who is disabled, says his benefits were dropped when the system switched over.

“They started denying my medicine,” Guess said. “It’s just getting harder and harder to make ends meet. I’m living on $500 a month. We don’t want the government to have to subsidize us. It’s wrong to deny anybody medicine that they have to have.

“It’s going to kill people in the end,” Guess said, sending the crowd into a roaring applause.

Residents approached the microphone one after one, explaining stories of lost paperwork, inconsistent answers, filing deadline issues and re-authorization chaos. Advocates claimed that those who had qualified for benefits for decades were suddenly being told that they did not qualify.