Six-year-old Jamela Anthony — wearing a black shirt proclaiming “I Kicked Cancer’s Butt” — ran through a hallway at Lurie Children’s Hospital toward a golden bell.

She rang it triumphantly, smiling before her mother scooped the tiny girl into a long, tight hug. Jamela rang it, a tradition at Lurie, to mark the end of chemotherapy more than a year after doctors found a type of rare, aggressive tumor on her spinal cord. She’s now in remission.

Jamela’s mother, Tangela Watson, is thankful for her daughter’s remission and that Medicaid, a state- and federally funded health insurance program, covered the costs of Jamela’s care.

“It helped out a lot,” said Watson, who lives on the city’s West Side. “That was one big thing I didn’t have to worry about.”

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Mother of 6-year-old cancer patient thankful for Medicaid, fearful for its future – Chicago Tribune