Christina Clark of Anderson suffers from lupus and fibromyalgia and says she had one motivation on Tuesday. “I’m running on pure adrenaline today because I’m so mad,” she shouted. “I’m fed up. We need it done today, not tomorrow, today!”

Anderson mother Bobbi Brown explained that she and her son are both mentally challenged. She spoke softly into the microphone, fighting tears as she told her story. Her food stamp and Medicaid benefits were recently canceled, and she now relies on Meals on Wheels to feed her family. “Sometimes I don’t eat because I want my son to eat.”

Sarah Cooper is one of many social workers and nursing home advocates who appeared before the crowd claiming that senior citizens were being dropped from the system. She described a case involving an elderly nursing home resident who was recently denied Medicaid benefits.

“He was denied due to timely filing,” she said. “C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding me. They give you only 10 days.”

Cooper says the new system requires beneficiaries to represent themselves or to appoint an authorized representative to handle their case.

“The call center will not talk to us. I can’t be the authorized representative for 127 people. They won’t allow us to help them.”

Many in the system are being denied benefits after missing a deadline or failing to provide adequate paperwork, Cooper said. The denial of services is blamed on a failure to cooperate in determining eligibility on the part of the benefits recipient, she said. “Failure to cooperate? If we were more cooperative, we’d be working at the document center!”

People receiving benefits must undergo a re-determination of eligibility under the new system. This is causing many problems, according to Cooper. “We’ve got 50 re-determinations in my building right now. They’re getting denied left and right. The state needs to take care of the elderly, and they are not.”

Baxter said the state’s failure to meet his needs had affected his patriotism. “I am not proud to be an American anymore. You’re supposed to feel proud to be an American. The government is killing us Americans.”

Baxter says he wants to ask the governor one question.

“I would just ask why, why should a man, woman or child have to suffer at a point in their life when we come from the land of the beautiful and the home of the brave. It’s really not what it appears to be.”

Guess did not agree. “This system may kill a lot of us here. It may kill me. But I’ll die being a proud American.”

With America giving millions in foreign aid each year, Baxter questions whether he should remain in Indiana. “If I would have gone to Africa, I probably would’ve gotten help from the United States. Maybe we need to go over there.”

“There’s a lot of denial going on. If the whole justification for going to the system was to do things more efficiently, then they need to do things more efficiently,” Lanane said.

Baxter said he hopes government officials address the issue quickly, saying that he is running out of time. “My eyes are getting yellow, and I’m falling apart. I would just like some help before help is no longer needed in my life. Please help me before it’s too late.”