Medicaid changes would hurt health care for all kids

Christopher G. Dawes, president and CEO of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, penned an article calling out the importance of protecting federal funding for health insurance programs, including Medicaid, in a recently published Huffington Post op-ed.

He highlights three key messages that he and colleagues in the children’s hospital and health care communities are advocating to elected officials.

1. Children are not small adults. They have unique health care needs.
2. Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program are the foundation of the entire child health care system. Cuts to these programs impact ALL children.
3. Collaboration with pediatric experts improves systems of care for all children, and investing in systems now reduces costs in the future.

He encourages all concerned citizens to understand the impact that these programs have on the entire children’s health care system, citing that proposed federal cuts to the above mentioned programs could have severe ramifications on all children, even those with private insurance.

From impacting access to specialty to primary and preventative care services, Dawes notes that the stability of the entire children’s health system is dependent on these programs that are currently being threatened by the proposed American Health Care Act.

You can read a longer version of his commentary on our site.

About Christopher G. Dawes
Mr. Dawes joined Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 1991 and became its President and Chief Executive Officer in 1999. Mr. Dawes previously served as Chief Operating Officer of the hospital from 1995 to 1997. He served as a board member of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, now called the Children’s Hospital Association. He currently serves on the boards of the California Children’s Hospital Association, California Hospital Association and the Santa Clara Family Health Plan.