The version of the GOP's ACA replacement plan approved by the House of Representatives could jeopardize funding for children's health coverage, reports USA Today.
Here are four things to know.
1. Millions of children receive health coverage through the Children's Health Insurance Program, which is funded with state and federal monies. CHIP offers the health coverage through Medicaid and separate CHIP programs. In fiscal year 2016, 8.9 million children enrolled in CHIP, according to the Statistical Enrollment Report on Medicaid.gov. Medicaid and CHIP together insure almost 50 percent of children age six and younger, according to the report.
2. The ACA replacement plan passed by the House earlier this month, known as the American Health Care Act, includes nearly $1 trillion in federal Medicaid cuts throughout a decade, according to the report. The cuts would primarily come through transforming Medicaid into block grants, where states would receive fixed federal grants for Medicaid spending.
3. Health experts contend these proposed cuts threaten children's health coverage, and they are particularly worried about the issue as a Sept. 30 deadline looms for a decision on whether to extend federal funding for CHIP beyond 2017, reports USA Today.
With those proposed cuts, "there's absolutely no way kids can stay out of harm's way," Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center on Children and Families in Washington, D.C., told USA Today.
4. The AHCA has moved to the Senate. Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La., in January introduced an ACA replacement plan known as the Patient Freedom Act of 2017. The ACA replacement plan, which Republican healthcare economist John Goodman helped develop, doesn't cut federal Medicaid spending, according to the report.
Read the full report here.