Children’s Health Fund strongly urges U. S. Senate to reject the Affordable Care Act repeal bill titled the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.

Despite repeated assurance that the Senate version of the bill would lessen many of the draconian cuts written into the American Health Care Act passed in the House, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 doesn’t seek to repair Medicaid, it seeks to dismantle Medicaid as we know it. A successful vote on the bill as written would be devastating to the health of America’s children.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, which scores the impact potential legislation would have if enacted, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 would cut $772 billion over 10 years from Medicaid, a program that covers 76 percent of poor children, and nearly 4 of every 10 children across the country.  Today, some 37 million kids are healthier because of Medicaid.

“Medicaid is the load bearing beam supporting America’s children, and is a proven hand-up, not hand-out, for children living in poverty” said Dennis Walto, Children’s Health Fund’s Chief Executive Officer. “We have a situation where the Senate is now proposing to cut the single biggest insurer of the neediest kids in our society. Studies consistently show that, in fact, the government recoups much of its investment made towards kids covered by Medicaid in the long-term, through tax revenue of productive healthy adults. This bill fails a trifecta test of repair, reason and results.”

“We have reached an unprecedented 95% coverage for children,” said Dennis Johnson, EVP for Advocacy and Policy. “A per capita cap mechanism is an unsustainable and arbitrary approach for funding Medicaid, the program which covers the most vulnerable members of our society. The provisions in this bill that reduce health care coverage and access for children would be taking America backwards.”

Do not be fooled – the results are in: the Senate “Better Care Reconciliation Act” is not better; it is outright dangerous for the health and future of America’s most vulnerable children.