Today, the United States House of Representatives voted on and passed, by a narrow margin of 217 to 213, a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The new law, if implemented, will cut Medicaid by $880 billion or approximately 25% during the next decade. As a result, school districts across this country will see their Medicaid reimbursements reduced by approximately $40 billion.
While federal health programs do need to be restructured, in our view, to curb soaring costs and a reallocation of resources is proper and appropriate, the current bill would diminish the ability of school districts (under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act) to provide high quality education services to students with disabilities and, under the law, states would no longer have to consider all schools eligible for Medicaid disbursement. However, school districts would still be required to provide special education services without offsetting funding.
As this bill goes to the U.S. Senate for consideration, we ask that you, as key stakeholders in this space, please be in touch with your senators to ensure that school districts continue to have the essential resources, tools, funding, and capacity to serve students with disabilities and learning differences.
Sincerely,
Rick Smith
CEO
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