GOP Medicaid/CHIP Cuts Threaten One-Third of All School Age Children

Leslie is joined by Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus on Children, a bipartisan advocacy organization working to make children the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. With policy experts in the many areas that affect our nation’s more than 70 million children, First Focus on Children offers thorough, bipartisan, achievable solutions to ensure the well-being of children in the U.S. and around the world.

The two discuss how the budget resolution recently passed by House Republicans would force hundreds of billions of dollars in funding cuts to Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), which would decimate their ability to deliver health care to the more than 37 million children they currently serve.

 Medicaid and CHIP currently cover:

    - 80% of children living in poverty
    - 42% of all children under 6
    - Over 40% of births in the U.S.
    - Nearly half of the 13 million U.S. children with special health care needs
    - 99% of children in foster care
    - More than 40% of children in rural and underserved communities
    - One-third of all school-age children (5-18 years old)

Taking support away from children’s health through Medicaid/CHIP cuts is a prescription for disaster that will:

    - Force states to cut services, eligibility, or provider payments that directly affect children
    - Create significant financial pressure on children’s hospitals and pediatric specialty providers that depend heavily on Medicaid/CHIP
    - Threaten school-based health services that rely on support from Medicaid/CHIP
    - Jeopardize mental health and developmental services for children
    - Hit hardest in rural and underserved areas, exacerbating existing health disparities

You can read more about why the cuts would be so disastrous here: https://firstfocus.org/update/prescription-for-disaster-the-impact-of-proposed-medicaid-and-chip-cuts-on-childrens-health/

The website for First Focus on Children is FirstFocus.org and their handle on BlueSky is @FirstFocus.bsky.social.  Bruce's handle there is @BruceLesley.bsky.social.