• The comprehensive federally mandated EPSDT (Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment) Medicaid benefit ensures children receive preventive care, which helps avoid more serious and costly care later.
• Medicaid provides wrap-around coverage for many children with private insurance. The EPSDT benefit helps prevent underinsurance by filling critical gaps in covered services, medical equipment, and devices that help children live up to their potential.
• Medicaid provides a return on investment (ROI). Adults who received Medicaid as children are more likely to attend college, pursue careers, contribute to the tax base, and live longer than children who were not eligible. (See How Medicaid for Children Partly Pays for Itself, the featured article in our Jan. 20 issue of Coverage, for a description of research on Medicaid ROI.)

Looking forward, Edelman is apprehensive about changes to Medicaid and efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which are included in the 2016 Congressional Budget Resolution. She worries that shifting Medicaid to a block grant program or implementing per capita spending limits will result in loss of coverage for millions of children as states roll back eligibility and benefits to protect their budgets. She is also concerned that 18- to 26-year-old adults, including young adults who have aged out of foster care, will lose extended coverage through their parents or through Medicaid.