Don’t slash Medicaid/CHIP, protect our children’s lives and futures!

As a constituent, I urge you to oppose slashing federal support for Medicaid/CHIP, which provides health care coverage for nearly 38 million children and 1 in 10 education support professionals. Slashing support by as much as $880 billion, as Republican budget numbers demand, would not lower costs—it would merely shift them to the states. The impact would reverberate throughout the economy, especially in rural areas where public schools are economic centers and access to health care is scarce. Consequences could include fewer health services for fewer people, hospital closures, higher taxes, larger class sizes, and reduced support for 7.5 million students with disabilities—15% of the student population. Virtually every student could be affected. That’s because Medicaid reimbursements help pay for school-based services that benefit the entire student population—health care as well as educators’ salaries and the services of health professionals like nurses, psychologists, and audiologists.