NBC News
Tony, a 7 -year -old energetic child who loves football and playing the fight with his brothers, was not very excited when his parents took the family to see Santa Claus in December. That day I was tired and apathetic.
His parents were surprised because Tony would normally be excited about the possibility of seeing Santa Claus.
Tony had been feeling indisposed a few weeks and his pediatrician diagnosed a virus and bronchitis. But after the visit to Santa Claus near his home in Wesley Chapel, Florida, mother intuition told Pauline McLaurin that his son’s thing was something serious.
He took the child directly to the emergency room, and his instinct was right: Tony had leukemia. From there, things got worse.
Tony has been entering and leaving the hospital, weak for chemotherapy. Pauline McLaurin left her job as a fifth grade teacher to take care of him, and they find it difficult to pay the accounts with the electrician salary her husband, Ronnie McLaurin.
As if that were not enough, the McLaurin have a new concern. They lost their private insurance when the mother left her job, and now they fear losing Medicaid, the public health insurance that finances Tony’s care.
Medicaid assures 1 in 3 children diagnosed with cancer in the United States, according to the Cancer Action Network of the American Cancer Society.
But the president, Donald Trump, and Republican legislators have requested drastic cuts in the government budget that, according to many independent experts, could not be made without significant cuts to Medicaid.
A Republican Budget Plan in the House of Representatives has asked the Energy and Commerce Committee, in charge of supervising Medicaid, identifying at least 880,000 million dollars in mandatory expense cuts during the next 10 years.
Although the plan does not specifically mention Medicaid, experts claim that it would be unfeasible for Republicans to reach that goal without significant cuts to the health program, since it is one of the largest sources of federal expenditure, with a cost of more than 600,000 million dollars a year, according to federal data.
Pauline McLaurin said he is “terrified” and “hopeless” to the perspective of losing Medicaid.
“It’s a very scary and disturbing feeling,” he said.
And the McLaurin are not alone in their fear.
Mary Ann Massolio directs 1vouize Academy, a school for children with cancer, which Tony attends. He assures that, in recent months, many parents have expressed their anguish for the possibility of losing Medicaid.
“There is enormous anxiety,” he said.
In February, the American Pediatrics Academy and other groups wrote a letter to legislators expressing their “serious concern” about possible cuts to Medicaid and the “devastating consequences for millions of children in the country.”
If these Republican budget cuts are approved, some children with cancer could die, said Dr. Sharon Castellino, pediatric oncologist specialized in Medicaid at the Cancer Center and Blood Disorders of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Professor of Pediatrics at the Emory University.
“This is a bipartisan issue,” said Castellino. “We are extremely worried.”
Trump states that Medicaid will not be affected
Since November 2024, Medicaid covers more than 70 million people in the United States, according to the Medicare and Medicaid service centers of the Federal Government. It is the largest source of medical coverage in the country, covering almost half of all children and more than 40 % of births, according to the American hospital association.
A study of 2024, conducted by Dr. Castellino and other researchers, revealed that children who experienced interruptions in Medicaid coverage before or during the diagnosis and treatment of cancer were less likely to survive the disease, compared to those with continuous coverage.
Republicans claim that budget cuts can be made without harming Medicaid.
“Medicare, Medicaid, none of that is going to play,” Trump said in February.
“The president has repeatedly said that we are not going to harm the beneficiaries of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid who are eligible. And that is our north, our true north,” said the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, Republican for Louisiana, PunchBowl News last month.
In its rural district of Louisiana, almost 25 % of adults under 65 depend on Medicaid, according to an NBC News analysis.
“I understand it deeply; it directly affects my people. We are going to be very careful not to cut any benefits to those who are eligible and depend on it,” said Johnson.
But last month, the Congress Budget Office, which is not partisan, declared that the House Republicans cannot meet their budget objective without making significant cuts to Medicaid or Medicare, the National Medical Insurance Program for the elderly.
In the House of Representatives, the Medicaid budget falls to the Energy and Commerce Committee of the Chamber, and the Republican Plan instructs said committee to cut the expense.
In February, Johnson said: “We are going to reduce fraud, waste and abuse, and from there we will obtain the necessary savings to achieve this mission.”
It would be very difficult to implement the cuts proposed by the Republicans only focusing on fraud, waste and abuse, explained Megan Cole Brahim, an associated professor at the Faculty of Public Health of the University of Boston and co -director of the Institution’s Medicaid Policies Laboratory.
“At first glance, this seems like a reasonable idea; nobody likes fraud, waste or abuse,” he said. “But there is a discrepancy between the cuts proposed by the Republicans and the real scope of fraud and waste.”
Johnson, the president of the Chamber, identified another way in which he intends to save Medicaid funds.
“There are many workers without disabilities, young people who could be working, but who decide not to do so because they are mounted on the government car,” he told PunchBowl. “I think that is wrong, and I think that if those people in the program are expelled – and there are a large number of them – it is preserved for those who really need it and deserve it.”
Cole Brahim described this “false narrative”, pointing out a KFF study that shows that, in 2023, almost two thirds of adults between 19 and 64 years covered by Medicaid worked and almost 3 out of 10 did not work due to responsibilities for care, illness or disability, or because they attended the school.
In the case of the McLaurin, Ronnie McLaurin has no medical insurance through his work as an autonomous electrician.
“This is not yet decided”
At this time, republican budgetary proposals are just that: proposals. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have their own plans, and no law has not been promulgated. The Energy and Commerce Committee could meet in the first days of May to identify the expense cuts that could seriously affect Medicaid.
Therefore, Massolio, of the 1VOICe Foundation – the group that directs the school that Tony attends in Florida – traveled to the Capitol earlier this year along with other defenders of Medicaid to urge legislators to maintain the Federal Intact program.
He states that one of his great fears is that, even if Medicaid funds for hospital services and medical consultations remain stable, other essential support services could be cut, such as transport to medical appointments or home nursing visits for very sick children.
On his trip to Washington, one of Massolio’s first stops was the office of Democratic representative Kathy Castor (Florida), a known face. The 9 -year -old son of Massolio, Jay, died of lymphoma in 1997, and she has frequently resorted to Castor, co -president of the Caucus of Childhood Cancer of Congress, to help her promote laws that support children with cancer.
Castor’s message to the group was to continue fighting. He reminded them that, during Trump’s first mandate, he promised to eliminate the affordable health care law (also known as Obamacare), but finally, after a wide public opposition, that did not happen.
There are already tensions within the Republican party around Medicaid, and some party members express their concern that the proposed budget cuts can harm families that receive Medicaid.
“The defense is fundamental. This is not yet decided,” Castor told NBC. “While they elaborate policies after racks, I hope some of these Republican members say: ‘I can’t do this. This harms families. This goes too far.”
In Florida, the McLaurin care daily that Tony does not survive, while fighting their accounts and taking care of their other five children without relatives who help them.
They do not know what they will do if Tony cannot get Medicaid for the rest of their cancer treatment, which is expected to last another two years.
“I feel hopeless right now, because I have no choice,” said Pauline McLaurin.
She expects Castor to be right and that manifestations and opposition help protect the doctor.
“I try to focus on that and pray to be true,” said Pauline McLaurin. “What else can I do?”
