Sweeping federal spending cuts, new cost-sharing rules, and eligibility restrictions for public health insurance and food aid will disproportionately affect vulnerable children across the USA, with potentially profound impacts on their development and wellbeing, according to experts contacted by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will cut more than US$1 trillion from Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the coming decade. Among the hardest hit will be children from low-income families, those with chronic illnesses, and migrant youth. “It’s going to be a generational impact,” said Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba (Children’s HealthWatch and Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA). “We know it’s going to have an impact on children’s development.”
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the law will leave 10 million more people uninsured by 2034. The number of affected children is not yet clear, but nearly half of children in the US are insured through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). “Millions of children will see health insurance and nutrition assistance benefits either completely eliminated or seriously reduced in the coming years,” said Leighton Ku (Center for Health Policy Research, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA).
Read the full article in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.