Congress is currently considering detrimental changes to Medicaid through block grants or caps on federal funds, and work requirements, among other efforts, placing the financial burden on states to find ways to maintain coverage for families and children, support Medicaid-covered special education services, continue optional drug coverage, among other robust benefits, including many specific to enrolled children. Cuts like these would have disastrous impacts on the most vulnerable patients in our country, and many enrollees, including parents, would likely lose health coverage which is shown to reduce children’s access to health services. Medicaid is the largest source of federal funds for states and equals just under 19 percent of a state budget on average nationally. Importantly, Medicaid (1) is the single largest payer for behavioral health services and 47.4% of all children receive healthcare through either Medicaid or CHIP (2).

If Medicaid cuts move through Congress, millions of Americans will lose coverage, as states could not keep up with program enrollment or rising health costs. Even Medicaid expansion would disappear in many states.

The reason these discussions are happening is because Congress will soon reauthorize the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act through a process known as budget reconciliation. This allows them to bypass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. To do this, the bill cannot add to the deficit and Congress is currently considering cutting billions in federal funding in order to account for budget shortfalls created by the bill’s reauthorization, using the above Medicaid proposals to do so.

We’ve seen similar Congressional threats to Medicaid financing in 2017, and personal stories illustrating the impact of the deep cuts kept the effort from becoming law. Congress is debating possible Medicaid refinancing now and outreach from AACAP members like you is key to informing Congressional offices about the impact of deep cuts.

Use the form on this page to contact your lawmakers today and urge them to oppose these shortsighted efforts.

If you have your own stories on the importance of Medicaid coverage for your practice or patients, we highly encourage you to include them in the templated email and recommend doing so after the second paragraph. Please note however, some Congressional offices have caps on the length of emails their system will allow you to send.

And, if your Member of Congress’ Office responds to your email, we would love to know! Send any follow-up to govaffairs@aacap.org. 

1. https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/behavioral-health-services/index.html 

2. https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-enrollment-data/report-highlights/index.html#:~:text=37%2C616%2C104%20people%20were%20enrolled%20in,Medicaid%20and%20CHIP%20program%20enrollment.