As a network of pediatricians and child health researchers committed to protecting and advancing children’s health, we are alarmed and deeply concerned with the Senate-passed reconciliation bill that threatens to take food and health care away from millions of families and children. Advanced by a single tie-breaking vote from the Vice President, this bill would go against what science and common sense tell us are the best investments we can make – food and health care for children and their families – and instead implement the largest cut to safety net programs in U.S. history, all while expanding fear through immigration enforcement and delivering tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy.
Decades of research and experience on the frontlines of care make clear: when families have access to food and health care, children and caregivers are healthier and less likely to experience financial hardship. These investments pay dividends in the form of academic performance, social well-being, healthy communities and local economies, and workforce productivity. The Senate-passed reconciliation bill threatens to dismantle essential programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by adding new eligibility restrictions, shifting significant costs to states, and imposing red tape that blocks access. Research from Children’s HealthWatch shows that when SNAP benefits are reduced or cut off, children and their parents are more likely to be in poor health and children at risk for developmental risk.
At the same time, the bill exacerbates income and wealth inequities while continuing to leave behind 20 million children whose families don’t earn enough to receive the full, evidence-based, health-protective Child Tax Credit and newly excluding 2.6 million U.S. citizen children.
Gutting programs that work in tandem to support families will increase material hardship and compromise the health and cognitive and social well-being of children now and into the future.
Now with the legislation before the House again, members of Congress have an opportunity to correct course and stand up for children and families by rejecting these unequivocally harmful cuts.
Children’s HealthWatch remains committed to bringing real-time data to policymakers to show the financial and human cost of their decisions and relentlessly advocate for policies that put children and their health first.