Trumpcare could force 4 million special needs kids into pricy pediatric nursing homes
BOB BRIGHAM at Raw Story
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/trumpcare-could-force-4-million-special-needs-kids-into-pricy-pediatric-nursing-homes/
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Under the version of Trumpcare being considered in the United States Senate, four million special needs children would be at risk for institutionalization due to cuts in the Medicaid programs that currently allow them to live at home with their families.
“Absent those supports paid for by Medicaid, the only option many families will have is institutionalization,” Meg Comeau, a researcher at the Boston University School of Public Health’s Catalyst Center, told Kaiser Health News. “You’ll see kids going into pediatric nursing homes, kids not being able to be discharged from hospitals.”
The Senate bill has an exemption aiming to protect some special needs children on Medicaid, but it would only apply to the 1.2 million special needs children who meet the SSI definition of “disabled,” but not the remaining 3-4 million special needs children who receive Medicaid because their parents have low incomes.
“The potential consequences could be devastating,” said Sara Bachman, who is also a researcher at the Catalyst Center, where they study improving insurance for children with special needs. “States on their own are quite variable on the ability to support the services kids need. The federal participation in the Medicaid program is in an essential underpinning. States are really going to be in a pickle.”
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