With the health care debate gaining momentum in Washington and some members of Congress and President Trump vowing to repeal the ACA, Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation needs to understand the needs of children — the most vulnerable citizens among us – and what is at stake if a high-quality replacement plan is not immediately available.

Of the many negative aspects of the drug-addiction epidemic in this region, the strain on finding adequate foster care for the children who have been removed from their homes is one of the saddest and increasingly difficult. Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia have all reported an increase in children entering foster care in the last few years at a higher rate than they are leaving.

President Donald Trump’s administration made explicit this weekend its commitment to an old GOP strategy for managing Medicaid, the federal-state insurance plan that covers low-income people — turning control of the program to states and capping what the federal government spends on it each year.

The law’s removal not only could hurt the 400,000 Pennsylvania residents who found coverage under its insurance exchanges, but also the 670,000 people covered statewide under a related expansion of Medicaid. Many of those patients represent the state’s most vulnerable: low-income families concentrated in rural communities or urban centers such as the Lehigh Valley.

For many years, our state and federal leaders have made a big investment in keeping kids healthy by increasing their access to health care coverage. It’s a little-known fact that some of the greatest beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are children.