Medicaid cuts will hurt the nation’s most vulnerable children

While primarily seen as a health care program, Medicaid also provides significant financial support to school districts for a variety of activities. As Congress works to enact a FY2018 federal budget and given the recent efforts to modify the Affordable Care Act, it is important to draw attention to the fact that cutting or changing Medicaid to a block grant program will have significant negative financial implications for school districts. These could have devastating effects on health care and educational programs that benefit the nation’s most vulnerable children (students with disabilities and those living in poverty), as well as threaten programs that benefit schools and local taxpayers. Read full ECB paper.