President Trump’s budget is here, and it contains serious cuts to the social safety net. One of the big changes is a plan to slash more than $800 billion over the next 10 years from Medicaid.

You may think of Medicaid as a program for the poor, but it also helps a variety of other vulnerable populations. Children with special health care needs rely on the program for services not typically covered by private health insurance, which helps them stay at home with their families. There are about five million children with special health care needs who receive benefits through public health insurance programs, including Medicaid. Proposed limits on a per-person basis are expected to disproportionately affect these children and their families, limiting access to costly but necessary services.

My sweet son is in this category. He had three different evaluations around the age of 2, to confirm the autism diagnosis I first suspected when he was 15 months old. There were many more evaluations after that, to assess the scope of his needs and strengths.

Autism is a spectrum disorder, so where would he fall? It was hard to tell in the beginning. Lots of well-meaning people would make comments: “He looks fine!” “That seems like typical kid behavior,” and an autism mom favorite, “You know, Einstein didn’t talk until he was 4!”