During Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, he promised he would deliver the best health care ever for everyone. That hasn’t happened.
Instead, we have seen an increase in “the number of uninsured children in the U.S. increased for the second year in a row and now tops four million, the highest numbers since ObamaCare became law.”
A recently released Georgetown University report, states: “Recent policy changes and the failure to make children’s health a priority have undercut bipartisan initiatives and the Affordable Care Act, which had propelled our nation forward on children’s health coverage,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and a research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. “This serious erosion of child health coverage is due in large part to the Trump Administration’s actions or inactions that have made health coverage harder to access and have deterred families from enrolling their eligible children in Medicaid and CHIP.”
Key findings of the report are as follows:
Other factors that have contributed to our children’s lack of medical insurance are:
- Efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicaid
- Delays in funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program
- Elimination of the individual mandate penalty
- Cuts to enrollment outreach and advertising
- Inadequate oversight over state Medicaid programs
- Creation of a climate of fear and confusion for immigrant families that discourages them from enrolling eligible children in Medicaid or CHIP
