Parents of kids with cancer fear GOP budget cuts could slash Medicaid
2025-04-25T09:00:00Z
Tony, an energetic 7-year-old who loves playing football and roughhousing with his brothers wasn’t all that excited when his parents took the family to see Santa in December.
Medicaid insures 1 out of 3 children diagnosed with cancer in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network.
President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have called for dramatic government budget cuts that many nonpartisan experts say are unfeasible without significant cuts to Medicaid.
A House Republican budget plan instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to identify at least $880 billion in mandatory spending cuts over the next 10 years. While the plan doesn’t specifically mention Medicaid, the experts say it would be unfeasible for Republicans to hit that target without significant cuts to the health program, since it’s one of the largest sources of federal spending, costing more than $600 billion per year, according to government data.
Pauline McLaurin said she is “terrified” and “hopeless” at the prospect of losing Medicaid.
“It’s a very scary, uneasy feeling,” she said.
The McLaurins are not alone.
Mary Ann Massolio runs 1Voice Academy, a school for children with cancer, which Tony attends. She says over the past few months, many parents have expressed distress about possibly losing Medicaid.
“It’s anxiety on steroids,” she said.
In February, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups wrote a letter to lawmakers expressing their “grave concerns” about potential Medicaid cuts and “the devastating consequences for millions of children across the country.”
If these Republican budget cuts go through, some children with cancer could die, said Dr. Sharon Castellino, who studies Medicaid as a pediatric oncologist at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and a professor of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine.
“This is a bipartisan issue,” she said. “We’re incredibly worried.”
Trump: Medicaid won’t be ‘touched’
As of November 2024, Medicaid covers more than 70 million people in the U.S., according to the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It’s the largest single source of health coverage in the U.S., covering nearly half of all children and more than 40% of births, according to the American Hospital Association.
A 2024 study, conducted by Emory’s Castellino and other researchers found that children who experienced interruptions in Medicaid coverage before or during their cancer diagnosis and treatment were less likely to survive the disease, compared to those with continuous coverage.
Republicans say budget cuts can be made without hurting Medicaid.
“Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched,” Trump said in February.
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