YouthToday

4/17/17

By Carrie Fitzgerald

More than 35 million kids and their families across the country breathed a sigh of relief on the afternoon of March 24 when Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the American Health Care Act (AHCA) from a vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

While touted as an Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal bill, AHCA included extreme cuts to Medicaid funding — more than $800 billion through per capita caps or block grants. Since children make up almost half of all Medicaid recipients, the deep reduction in funds could have resulted in changes to eligibility categories, covered benefits and services.

Children and youth who receive Medicaid are in families with low incomes and/or are children who have special health care needs or are in the child welfare system, and some are former foster youth.

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