Together, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) provide a meaningful hand up to millions of families across the United States. Unfortunately, the strength of the EITC and CTC are both at risk of being undermined. Several key provisions of the EITC and CTC are set to expire at the end of 2017 – unless congress acts to renew or make these provisions permanent.

Like a correctly dosed medicine, the EITC and CTC are associated with improvements in children’s health and well-being. To ensure that these proven policy prescriptions continue to improve the health of children and their families, Congress can:

• Prevent the rollback of the ARRA improvements to the EITC and CTC and make those key provisions permanent

• Index the maximum CTC to inflation to preserve the value of the benefit

In doing so, we will make sure that families are able to receive effective doses of this essential medicine for optimal health—sustaining individual family health as well as the health of whole communities.