An Urban Institute analysis shows that 49% or 7.7 million children ages 3 and younger relied on CHIP or Medicaid insurance for poor Americans in 2015 . That’s more than any other form of insurance coverage for the 15.7 million young children that year. “Because young children and their parents rely on Medicaid at higher rates than older children and their parents, contractions of Medicaid funding would have outsize effects on families with young children,” Urban Institute researchers wrote in the report. Such “contractions” in CHIP and Medicaid spending became more real before the holidays when the Republican-led Congress passed a temporary budget that only extended CHIP through the end of March, leaving long-term funding up in the air. Cutting CHIP would be unusual if Speaker Ryan considered it ripe for spending reductions.

Source: Forbes December 31, 2017 15:00 UTC