Disabled Children And The Senate Health Plan

Published July 11, 2017 at 9:00 AM CDT

Stacey English, right, works on balance and core strength with her 7-year-old daughter, Addison, in Houston on Friday, June 23, 2017. Texas children with special needs like Addison have lost critical services since the state implemented $350 million in Medicaid cuts to speech, occupational, and physical therapy in December. (David J. Phillip/AP)

With guest host Ray Suarez.

The Senate health care bill would leave millions of disabled children without Medicaid. We’ll dig into that.

Republican Senators assured reporters, protestors and whoever would listen that their bill to replace Obamacare didn’t cut Medicaid — it just slowed the rate of growth of what was already one of the most expensive federal programs. Disabled people, and families of children with special needs, say GOP plans for Medicaid slash the supports that give them quality of life. — Ray Suarez

Guests

Jordan Rau, senior correspondent with Kaiser Health News. ( @jordanrau)

Sara Bachman, principal investigator at the National Center for Health Insurance and Financing for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs. Professor at the Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health at Boston University.

Lanhee Chen, research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Director of domestic policy studies and lecturer in the Public Policy Program at Stanford University. ( @lanheechen)

Gordon Hartman, founder of Morgan’s Inspiration Island, the world’s first fully-accessible water park for people with disabilities. ( @ghff)

From The Reading List

Kaiser Health News: Millions Of Kids Fall Outside Senate Plan To Shield Disabled From Medicaid Cuts — “As Senate Republicans seek to limit the amount Medicaid will spend on poor people’s health, they recognize that one group has complex medical issues warranting protection: severe special needs. But Aidan and several million other children would not meet the Senate’s highly restrictive definition of ‘blind and disabled’ children whose health coverage would be excluded from the vast reductions Republicans are pushing.”

HuffPost: Activists With Disabilities Would Rather Go To Jail Than ‘Die Without Medicaid’ — “Ten protesters, most of whom have disabilities, were arrested Thursday in the Denver office of Republican Sen. Cory Gardner after staging a sit-in that lasted nearly 60 hours. They are part of a larger network of activists who believe they are literally fighting for their lives in their efforts to stop the Republicans’ health care bill.”

American Academy of Pediatrics: Statement of the Problem: Health Reform, Value-Based Purchasing, Alternative Payment Strategies, and Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs — “There is increasing interest in maximizing health care purchasing value by emphasizing strategies that promote cost-effectiveness while achieving optimal health outcomes. These value-based purchasing (VBP) strategies have largely focused on adult health, and little is known about the impact of VBP program development and implementation on children, especially children and youth with special health care needs.”