{"id":6938,"date":"2017-07-07T18:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6938"},"modified":"2017-07-07T18:05:27","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:05:27","slug":"medicaid-cuts-in-senate-health-plan-could-fall-on-texas-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6938","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid Cuts in Senate Health Plan Could Fall on Texas Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"If<\/a>

If Medicaid funds are cut, 3 million low-income Texas children could lose their health-care coverage. Photo: Boyle\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0More than 3 million low-income Texas children could lose their health care if the U.S. Senate\u2019s repeal-and-replace bill, known as the \u201cBetter Care Reconciliation Act,\u201d becomes law, according to\u00a0a new analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Center for Public Policy Priorities analysis determined that the plan\u2019s $800 billion in Medicaid cuts could cause kids enrolled in the Texas Medicaid and CHIP programs to lose their eligibility or be priced out of coverage.<\/p>\n

Patrick Bresette, executive director of the Children\u2019s Defense Fund in Texas, said Medicaid is a critical lifeline for some of the state\u2019s neediest families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rely on Medicaid as a critical health-insurance program for nearly half of our children,\u201d he said. \u201cThree million children receive their health care through Medicaid. Half of our newborns and prenatal care are covered by Medicaid. So, it\u2019s an enormous impact across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate on Tuesday delayed a vote on the bill until after the Fourth of July recess, after a Congressional Budget Office analysis showed 22 million people nationwide would lose health coverage by 2026 and premiums for older Americans could jump to four times the current rate, while providing less coverage.<\/p>\n

The cuts would hit families with special-needs children especially hard, according to the analysis. Kayla, a mother of three in Pasadena who asked that her last name not be used, said her middle child has a metabolic disorder and the care costs thousands of dollars a month. Without Medicaid, she said, they could not afford it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at the future, what it would look like without Medicaid, there are things like her monthly supplies that we would think, \u2018Well, how could we scrape the money together for that?\u2019 So, when you\u2019re talking about cutting a service like that,\u201d she said, \u201cwe\u2019re really fearing for her life at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bresette said Medicaid also is important in how publicly funded hospital districts in Texas care for low-income people. Often, he said, it\u2019s how they keep their doors open.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital district is supported by local taxpayers,\u201d he said, \u201cand so any pressure they feel from reductions in federal funding ultimately does fall on the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bresette said that under the Senate plan, which would cap Medicaid funding at a fixed amount per eligible person, Texas would lose $1.5 billion in federal funds each year through 2026. Unless the state makes up the difference, benefits would be cut significantly.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders in the Senate have said deep cuts are needed to reduce the federal deficit.<\/p>\n

The CPPP report is online at\u00a0forabettertexas.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson HOUSTON \u2013\u00a0More than 3 million low-income Texas children could lose their health care if the U.S. Senate\u2019s repeal-and-replace bill, known as the \u201cBetter Care Reconciliation Act,\u201d becomes law, according to\u00a0a new analysis. The Center for Public Policy Priorities analysis determined that the plan\u2019s $800 billion in Medicaid cuts could cause kids enrolled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6940,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6938\/revisions\/6940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}