A widower raising four kids on $1,000 a month is suing Medicaid after the government program refused to pay for diapers for his 16-year-old daughter who has severe cerebral palsy.

In the lawsuit, Floyd Smith claims that Florida’s Medicaid program is violating federal law by refusing to cover the cost of diapers for his daughter Sharett and others like her.

Sharett is non-verbal and she is unable to walk or use her hands.

Currently diapers are Smith’s largest monthly expenditure after rent and he finds himself choosing between them and food.

Two other states — Arizona and Louisiana — once excluded diapers from their Medicaid coverage, but both states lost when the issue was brought to court, Smith’s lawyers say.

Currently the only option Smith has besides paying for the diapers himself is to send Sharett to an institution, which he is unwilling to do, reports The Miami Herald.

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