This Policy Brief begins with a brief overview of Medicaid and child health, examining both its early eligibility structure as well as the advent of Medicaid’s special benefit for children, which is known as “early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment (EPSDT).” The Brief then describes the findings from this pivotal 1964 study that so strikingly influenced Medicaid’s child health policy: One Third of a Nation: A Report of Young Men Found Unqualified for Military Service. It concludes with a discussion of the continued relevance of this history to Medicaid reform.