KQED

Sleep is a rare commodity at Lindsay Crain’s house. Most nights, she and her husband are up dozens of times, tending to their daughter’s seizures. The 16-year-old flails her arms, thrashes, and kicks — sometimes for hours. But these days, that’s not the only thing keeping Crain awake. The Culver City mother worries about how President Donald Trump’s myriad budget cuts could strip their daughter of services she needs to go to school, live at home, and enjoy a degree of independence that would have been impossible a generation ago. “Every family I know is terrified right now,” Crain said. “We still have to live our everyday lives, which are challenging enough, but now it feels like our kids’ futures are at stake.” Trump’s budget includes nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, which funds a wide swath of services to disabled children, including speech, occupational, and physical therapy, wheelchairs, in-home aides, and medical care. All children with physical, developmental, or cognitive disabilities – in California, nearly 1 million – receive at least some services through Medicaid.