(WASHINGTON, DC) – The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates 22 million people who are currently insured would lose their health coverage by 2026 under the proposed Senate health bill, resulting in 49 million uninsured Americans. This is only slightly lower than the 23 million it estimated would lose coverage under the House bill. Next year, the CBO said 15 million more people would be uninsured compared with current law.

The legislation’s proposed evisceration of Medicaid to the tune of $772 billion would hit children particularly hard, as more than 37 million kids depend on Medicaid for health coverage.

First Focus President Bruce Lesley issued the following statement:

“This bill imposes irresponsibly savage and unprecedented draconian cuts to Medicaid.

If the intention is to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), why are lawmakers hell-bent on eviscerating Medicaid, a separate and historically successful and popular program that insures 37 million children and whose coverage had nothing to do with the ACA?

To call this legislation a repeal of the ACA is breathtakingly disingenuous. It is, instead, a vicious dismantling of Medicaid, which serves America’s young, poor, elderly, disabled, and most vulnerable populations. Why? All for a tax break for the wealthiest among us?

Children don’t vote, but they are the foundation of America’s future. There is nothing in this bill that improves the health coverage of children, but at the very least, Congress should at least protect children from harm. This bill fails that simple test, and the next generation deserves much better.”