The Center for Children and Families turned 20 on Monday! I marked this milestone as a guest on the NPR 1A program, explaining the role of Medicaid and Congressional proposals to cut it deeply. Many of the listeners needed no convincing that Medicaid was important, indeed life-sustaining for them and their families. One mother called in to say she was “terrified” she wouldn’t be able to afford the medication she relies on to manage her chronic condition and care for her child if she loses Medicaid coverage. Another mother explained how Medicaid made it possible for her adult son to manage his mental health condition and hold down a kitchen job.
These stories from listeners to 1A reminded me why I chose to work in the health policy field in the first place. It renewed my commitment to keep up the hectic pace to ensure the public understands the consequences of Medicaid changes being debated by Congress, which include making the largest cut to federal Medicaid funding in my lifetime.
Congress is continuing down this path despite poll after poll (including from President Trump’s own pollster) making it clear that voters don’t want this. It’s not surprising to see that pollsters are finding strong opposition to Medicaid cuts because Medicaid is the backbone of our health care system, and any cuts will have far-reaching consequences. Unfortunately, Congress is not sharing plans publicly and rushing this through as fast as possible, so many people may not learn about the cuts until it’s too late.
The House Energy and Commerce committee mark-up of the budget reconciliation provisions impacting Medicaid is currently scheduled for 2 p.m. on Tuesday, which under committee rules means that text of the bill (which of course may be substituted during the process) is supposed to be made public at 11:59 Sunday night – aka Mother’s Day! Many of the millions of mothers and grandmothers who rely on Medicaid for their health care, maternity care, long-term care, the care of their children, and loved ones with disabilities are likely unaware of this development that will likely wreak havoc on health coverage. We are doing what we can to follow the twists and turns of this debate as the budget reconciliation bill is rushed through Congress, and we will be sharing our analysis with you on our blog and social media channels .
While proponents of cuts continuously claim that they will protect the “most vulnerable”, in fact, children will be deeply harmed by the proposals under consideration. We have not yet seen the proposals, but it is likely that some may directly lead to more uninsured children. For example, more frequent eligibility checks can cause eligible children to fall through the cracks. My colleague Tricia Brooks explains on our blog how disastrous this could be for children.
And some changes could cause children to become uninsured through an “unwelcome mat effect” when their parents lose Medicaid coverage. Cuts to parents through work requirements will result in approximately 500,000 to 1.5 million children losing coverage, according to an important new research report from Cindy Mann and colleagues at Manatt. The report also finds that cuts or caps to Medicaid expansion for adults could result in as many as 773,000 children losing coverage. Another important new report this week from the Commonwealth Fund explains that one in five children fall into “optional” categories, in the parlance of the law, so are at greater risk when states have to cut their budgets in the wake of federal cuts.
Back to the CCF anniversary. Many of you know that Cindy Mann, Joceyln Guyer and I co-founded the Center for Children and Families in 2005. When selecting a name, we were very intentional about including “families” in the name. Children don’t grow up in a vacuum. They need healthy parents, child care providers, preschool teachers, teacher’s aids, bus drivers, coaches, faith leaders and other members of their community that help them grow and thrive. As we watch the debate over the future of Medicaid unfold, we will be keeping an eye out for how cuts would impact children and undermine their support network.
Please stay tuned to our blog next week for important updates. We will also release a major new report on the role of Medicaid for women of child-bearing age in rural areas on Thursday.
It will be another busy, long week for everyone in health policy. We remain steadfast in our mission at CCF to bring data and evidence to bear in service of better public policy for children and families. As for CCF’s anniversary, we look forward to a full celebration at our conference later this year. In the meantime, watch our short anniversary video.