Governing
By: Mattie Quinn
Just over one hundred days into Donald Trump’s presidency, he has left health officials with more uncertainty than most have faced in years. A promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, one of the biggest overhauls of modern health care, hangs in the balance. Waivers to transform Medicaid, the health-care program for the poor, are pending. And the release of the president’s budget on Tuesday makes it impossible to know how much federal funding they can count on.
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“It’s hard to imagine that it’ll be enacted fully, but at a minimum, it reflects the priorities of the administration,” says Elizabeth Burak, senior program director at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.
CHIP covers around 6 million kids from low-income families. Burak, from Georgetown, says it’s hard to imagine a scenario where we don’t see the rates of uninsured children rise.
CHIP has always enjoyed bipartisan support. If Congress enacts Trump’s proposed cuts to the program, “it signals a particular willingness to abandon the historically bipartisan commitment.”
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