A partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act could cost up to 13 million children to lose their health coverage if Congress scales back financial support of Medicaid for poor Americans and eligibility for kids’ health benefits falls to new minimum levels.  Under the law signed six years ago by President Obama, millions of Americans gained coverage when the ACA provided states a generous federal funding to expand Medicaid. There are 31 states plus the District of Columbia that adopted Medicaid expansion under the ACA, including states led by Republican governors like Ohio’s John Kasich and New Jersey’s Chris Christie.  But Republicans control the U.S. Senate and House with an ally in the White House in Donald Trump who will allow them to scale back coverage gains, particularly if lawmakers use budgetary maneuvers that allow legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority. If that is done with the law repealed without an immediate replacement, millions will lose eligibility, according to the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center.  “We find that 4.4 million children and 7.6 million parents could lose coverage in 2019 if Congress’s budget reconciliation process repeals pieces of the ACA without a replacement plan,” researchers at the Urban Institute wrote in a report released Wednesday called “Partial Repeal of the ACA through Reconciliation: Coverage Implications for Parents and Children.”  “ Under the repeal bill, states would be able to reduce Medicaid and CHIP eligibility for children beginning in 2017 . We find that up to 9 million more children could lose coverage if states lower Medicaid/CHIP eligibility to the new minimum standards.”  Congressional leaders have vowed to repeal the ACA, but haven’t come up with a replacement plan. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan told 60 Minutes that Congress would repeal the law next month.  “We will pass a budget and that budget in the beginning of this first session in January will put in place the budget mechanism that we need to repeal Obamacare while we work on an orderly transition to replace it with something much, much better,” Ryan told 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley earlier this month.  While Ryan and his fellow members of Congress work on their replacement plan, advocates for the uninsured and academics who study healthcare are sounding the alarm about repercussions to those who gained coverage under the ACA.
More than 13 million children could lose coverage if Obamacare is partially appealed with Medicaid expansion disappearing and eligibility for CHIP lowered to new federal levels.